Peter Griffin: Apple leaves bad taste

Two and a half years after the launch of Apple's music download service iTunes, and six months after Russell Crowe let it slip that an Australian launch was imminent, the Aussies finally have iTunes.

There are a couple of things we should learn from that. To Apple, Australia isn't very important, and anything Crowe says should be taken with a pinch of salt.

But Apple hasn't opened the iTunes door to its loyal New Zealand iPod users, either.

Something's wrong with the music industry here, which is seeking legal and political support to oppose proposed changes to the Copyright Act 1984 that will allow format shifting or transferring music between CDs, computers and music players like the iPod.

That's despite the fact New Zealanders are already format shifting and thus breaking the law.

The music industry needs to accept the technology has leapt ahead of legislation. The future of music is multi-format and digital. With its regressive attitude, no wonder it can't get its act together with Apple and open iTunes here.

The biggest music download service available here, CokeTunes, is pretty good, but isn't compatible with the iPod.

Apple has nearly 70 per cent of the music player market in Australia. The figure for New Zealand will be similar, yet there is no music download service for iPod users.

No one has explained why we can't have iTunes now, but I suspect it comes down to disagreement over the price of tracks or assigning rights of use.

Interestingly, music label Sony BMG is not involved with iTunes Australia. It has a large presence in New Zealand, so a New Zealand launch of iTunes would likely need its backing. The label's absence from iTunes Australia doesn't bode well for us.

So what do the Aussies get? More than a million downloadable songs. Single music tracks cost A$1.69 ($1.81), entire albums around A$16.99 ($18.23), and music videos A$3.39 ($3.63).

Downloaded into the free iTunes software, the tracks are encoded in Apple's Fairplay digital rights management software, allowing you to burn up to seven CDs with a static playlist. Sounds reasonable.

The Australians can't access TV shows being made available in the US for download to the video iPod - it means Australians would see the shows before they screened in the country. But they can select tracks through iTunes rather than stumping up for a full album. IPod owners here deserve that choice, too.