iTunes Music Store Now Available in Ireland!

kmurph

Hello

I'm sure you probably all know this by now, but the Irish iTMS is now up and running.

JustHalf

Rock.

flywheel

i had to blink to really believe it this time - but it's there:)




iTunes Music Store now open in Ireland (macminute.com)


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abccormac

good stuff! I can soothe my conscience by paying for all the stuff i've been forced against my will to download illegaly

hshortt

Deadly, thanks for that!

Aquos76

What format are these songs downloaded as. Are they WMA or MP3 or something else.

Peteer

Excellent!

RobertFoster

at last!

acous

Leonard: They are AAC files but are encrypted with a digital rights management system called "fairplay". That means there's some restrictions on how you use the files.

Aquos76

Acous wrote:

Leonard: They are AAC files but are encrypted with a digital rights management system called "fairplay". That means there's some restrictions on how you use the files.

Thanks for that, so tell me I have a creative zen and was woundering if I would be able to buy some of these tunes and transfer them to WMA or mp3 or other that will play on my zen touch.

Thanks

doh.ie

Sign-up process was pretty straightforward. Anyone know when exactly it opened?
I'm figuring it was sometime yesterday based on the macminute.com story. Took bloody long enough in any case.

Coyler

I believe there is a way, Leonard, to strip the DRM from ACC files but I won't post it here for obvious reasons. Actually what is the moderators stance on this, just for clarity?
Tried out the store myself and found it all quick and efficient. Thats enough novelty for the moment....

lynchie

Leonard wrote:

Thanks for that, so tell me I have a creative zen and was woundering if I would be able to buy some of these tunes and transfer them to WMA or mp3 or other that will play on my zen touch.

Thanks

Seems somebody isn't happy that they cant listen to them on their mp3 player

www.neowin.net wrote:

Reuters is reporting that an angry iTunes customer is suing Apple, claiming that he is forced to buy an iPod if he wants to listen to his music on the move. Thomas Slattery, from California, filed the lawsuit for unspecified damages over the inclusion of Apple's "Fairplay" Digital Rights Management system in tracks bought over iTunes. "Fairplay" encodes files in the AAC format, and downloaded songs cannot be transferred to MP3 players - except Apple's own iPod.

The suit alleges Apple has broken anti-trust laws by only allowing its songs to be played on its own player. The majority of MP3 players support rival Microsoft's WMA format which also has DRM. The WMA standard is also used by most online music stores, including Napster. Apple is believed to hold as much as 87% of the digital music player market, with more than six million iPods now sold.

It alleges that "Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice, even where players exist that would otherwise be able to play these music files absent Apple's actions". Mr Slattery described himself as an iTunes customer who "was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod" if he wanted to take the music he had bought with him.

Syth

Leonard wrote:

Thanks for that, so tell me I have a creative zen and was woundering if I would be able to buy some of these tunes and transfer them to WMA or mp3 or other that will play on my zen touch.

Thanks

AAC files will only play on an iPod. Apple is currently being sued over this. There's a thread on the Computers board. If you want to buy songs from iTMS you'd better buy an iPod.

There is a way though. Buy the songs, burn them to a CD, then rip them back to MP3 format. You might lose some quality and it'd take a while.

JoeTurner

At last!

€0.99 for tracks - cheaper than 79p in the UK - you don't get that very often over here :eek:

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

SteveFE

kmurph wrote:

Hello

I'm sure you probably all know this by now, but the Irish iTMS is now up and running.

Thank you thank you thank you kmurph - that's the message I've been waiting for Apple to email me for months!

darraghrogan

It's certainly slick. Album art preloaded, I like it!

Not enough to replace p2p but well thought out.

Shame we don't have access to the other stores - the us store has free songs for example.

Darragh

Maoltuile

lynchie wrote:

Seems somebody isn't happy that they cant listen to them on their mp3 player

Hopefully, this moron'll be laughed out of court quickly. There *is* no DRM on MP3 songs on iPods - it's the AAC files (the ones sold through iTMS) that're DRM'ed. MP3's play just fine.

I saw some alleged "technology" journalist make exactly the same silly mistake (on the by-default playability of MP3's in iPods) in ComputerScope recently, which formed the central part of his argument on Why iPod Is Doomed, IIRC. (Actually, I'm rather surprised that Weckler hasn't been moaning about it, too)

JustHalf

Maoltuile:
You've got the wrong end of the stick. This guy is suing Apple because he can't play music he bought from the iTMS on a non-iPod MP3 player.

ZENER

Ah **** it !!!!! And I've only just got me credit card sorted !!!

*/ . . must . . .resist . . temptation . . .

Bah ! no good !

Brilliant resource and some Albums I'd forgotten/couldn't find after battling through HMV, and less than a tenner too !!

Heh heh, iPod Rocks

ZEN

grumpypaddy

its great to be able to download tracks legally ( dont mind paying... maybe i am mad!!). set up account and downloaded two yesterday.. even though i only have a normal landline connection it didnt take too long to download and sound quality is ok. now perhaps for a ipod shuffle!!