Australian iTunes
Well, it’s about bloody time. Though we apparently don’t have any music from Sony BMG, the Australian iTunes Music Store is up and running — with tracks available for $1.69 and albums for (usually) $16.99. Bought me a Sarah Blasko track this morning and it was easy as pie (the greek letter pi! ahem, no, not really).
Ah, but is anything free, you ask? Well, they have a free single of the week (This week it’s ‘Shadowlands’ by Youth Group) and a nice collection of Australian Podcasts too.
So, er, yay. Hopefully we’ll get some TV at some point in the future…
101
Andy
October 25th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
17 bucks is steep for an album but you’re guaranteed not to encounter any Australian idolists while browsing.
I know of a good russian site that sells mp3s for 10c a pop. The legality is not at all dubious.
Tom
October 25th, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Yeah, it could be a shade lower, really. $17 is almost in the range of physical CDs. I hear the BigPond store is cheaper. But I believe they sell WMAs which would make me feel a little dirty.
Shannon
October 25th, 2005 at 9:26 pm
Unrelated, I hate that you cant get from the comments pages on articles, back to the homepage. When I visit, I see what new comments there are, go and read them, and then want to go back and click on the next comment located elsewhere – say, on a blog. From the comments section you can get to blogs, or ntgf, and then any subsection of articles ie books, music etc. But not back to the start. It shits me senesless having to hit back a bunch of times and renavigate. Anyone think they might be able to do something about this??
Tom
October 26th, 2005 at 1:54 am
Three observations:
Firstly, you’re right, the navigation up the top should have had more options. Those have been added to that area.
Secondly, I always assumed everyone was like me (bad assumption) and when they wanted to get to the homepage of a site they clicked on its name. Anyhow, that has always worked and still works.
Thirdly, if you’re using Firefox you could save a whole boodle of time and middle click on all the links you want to read, open them in the background and read them one by one. That’s what sold me on tabbed browsing in the first place.
Andy
October 26th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
Tabbed browsing? Sounds inconvenient. What’s wrong with right click, open in new window, alt-tab? Crazy firefoxes.
I’ve always clicked on the name too, but from a navigation point of view it is clearer to have the current location highlighted.
Do you know how much Apple makes from selling music?
Jack
October 26th, 2005 at 8:12 pm
I’ll tell you but you have to promise that you’ll use the information for good and not for evil.
Evil being horrid things like your mindless apple bashing
Andy
October 26th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
What if I use the information for personal gain? I don’t always criticise Apple; just the other day I praising the company for selling expensive products which leave consumers impoverished so they can better appreciate their health.
Do they sell music videos?
Tom
October 26th, 2005 at 11:48 pm
Apple doesn’t make much out of the Music store. It’s just a tool to sell iPods with. Or so I hear.
They do sell music videos, for under $4. In the US they sell their TV shows for the same price as their music videos. Hopefully the same will happen here if things work out.
hayko
November 1st, 2005 at 10:57 am
How does that compare? Same price for music video (6 min) and TV show (20/40 min)?
There should be a law that you can only earn a million bucks for an episode. After they earned that, it should be free of charge.
Tom
November 1st, 2005 at 5:20 pm
I think they just want the simplicity of one price per video. Seems odd to have big things the same price though, I agree.
If your rule was applied, I think the TV landscape would be even crummier than it already is (well, in Australia anyhow). If a network can’t have a massive money-spinner then it’s less likely to have the resources to experiment with smaller shows.