It was announced this morning that the iTunes Music Store was being released here in NZ. Fantastic! I remember watching a webcast of Steve Jobs announcing the iTMS for the first time. I had only just started sipping the Apple koolaid having bought my first Mac (a shiny iBook G3). I remember thinking “OMG, that is so freaking cool! 250,000 songs!? That’s huge! I wonder how long it’ll be before it gets to NZ”.
After double checking Wikipedia, iTMS was first launched in April, 2003… That was three and half years ago! In that time we’ve seen video iPods, G5s come and go, and hell freeze over with the Mac plaform switching to Intel chips. It’s a bit of a joke we’ve had to wait this long, apparently we are the last English-speaking developed country to receive the store.
However, all of that is now past us 
and I’ve already signed up and bought my first few songs. My first legally (of the paid variety) downloaded song was Evermore’s Light Surrounding You, sweet! And at a $1.79 per song…
How does $1.79 compare to the rest of the world? Well I’m glad you asked that question, here is a table of currency converted (using Apple Calculator, of course) prices for the US, UK, EU, Aussie, and ourselves, ordered by price.
| Country | Price point | NZD$ |
|---|---|---|
| US | $0.99 | $1.43 |
| NZ | $1.79 | $1.79 |
| EU | €0.99 | $1.91 |
| AU | $1.69 | $1.93 |
| UK | £0.79 | $2.26 |
Interestingly, and even after GST, we’re cheaper than all 4 stores bar the American one. Not bad at all.
Have you joined the iTMS already? What was your first song?
Comments
There are 2 responses to iTMS finally makes the long trek to the Antipodes
Tuesday, 19th December 2006 8:55 am
maybe it is more expensive to buy a tune in UK… but its all relative to how much youre earning. Plus things are differnt prices over here. For example, you can buy a 500ml bottle of pepsi for £0.49 = $NZ1.50… how much does it cost to buy in NZ?
I take it albums are $17.99? as it costs about £7.90 for an album here – although i did buy a couple Pulp albums for £5.20.
Glad Aotearoa has finally got iTS… All we need now is the TV Shows and Movies… Would you buy a movie – or be happy renting it for a day or two.
Tuesday, 19th December 2006 9:59 am
You’re absolutely right, so the trick is to earn pounds and spend Kiwi dollars…