iTunes Music Store in Singapore by 2007?

Hooray for Singapore.. with 2 jailed for downloading music (Yes, you read it right, jailed!) I'm sure Apple music store will be a welcome sight. That is if the price is right!

In any case, I'd assume that aside from the annoyance of getting Record Companies to go along with the idea, adding another country into the iTunes system isn't technically difficult. The main reason for the delay is probably legal issues with the record companies.

That being said, ITMS is never meant to do a very good job at converting people who buy pirated CDs. Rather, it's doing a good job convincing people to get individual tracks instead of whole albums. You can buy just what you like instead of the whole package with random songs. Piracy and low CD Prices probably isn't going to be that big a deal to ITMS. Think of ITMS as just another choice of style in music purchase.

I was living in Singapore for a good couple of years before college in the states, but I don't remember Singapore having too bad a problem with piracy, as compared to say, Hong Kong, where I was born and raised. Pirated CDs are still pretty expensive there and not worth the trouble quality wise.

The one reason I wanted to get ITMS in Hong Kong, beside the fact that I cancelled my US credit card without realizing what I did, was that I can get music without going to the stores. More importantly, I can get music that I know I can't find locally, no matter how good the record stores are with importing. That's why I'm also looking forward to podshow music store to open up. I love my music with variety.

Something interesting for ITMS Singapore is that, although the local music scene in Singapore isn't as big as that in Hong Kong, ITMS should have no problem including a good portion of that into the system. Would be nice to finally have Chinese songs available on there. Some local artists in Hong Kong are already promoting their music video in .H264 format on quicktime.

true, music CDs may be cheap here, but that's only for popular music that's pressed locally. imported music costs between twenty and thirty singapore dollars, and rarer music costs upwards of forty. and there is a lot more music that isn't even brought here. so a singapore iTunes Music Store would be a great way for local music lovers to legally accquire music that would otherwise not be legally available to them at all.

also, let's not forget that people are lazy, and love a good bargain. this applies especially to singaporeans. so a reasonably priced digital album--costing less than a real CD, comes with a digital booklet and perhaps a music video,--that you don't even need to leave your house for will appeal to more people than heading out to a brick-and-motar store just to get a real CD that costs more. and will take far more time and trouble to get onto your iPod.

plus, you can even burn a copy of the album should you desire to play the content on other devices.

so providing Apple can and will undercut CD prices, i think this will be a success. i personally can't wait for the Music Store to open and destroy my debit card.

I kinda havta agree with Berkana. It's up to the authorities now to play ball and lock piracy away to convince Apple that Singapore's where it's at.

You really wonder how piracy will react to the Mactel platform though.

I moved to Singapore 2 years ago TODAY, and I gotta say I love this place!
The issue with Singapore is not so much the piracy, but how damn cheap it is to buy music CD's out here. Apple's current pricing model simply wouldn't cut it out here. They'll have to come out with a much cheaper price than the US/UK stores in order for people to buy from them. CD's out here got for around s$18, which is about US$11, go do the math!

Finally!

Apple may hesitate to venture into parts of Asia where piracy is rampant (Basically everywhere but Japan, and Korea): the Mac platform cannot survive rampant piracy as a minority platform. Piracy was one of the things that killed the Amiga. If Mac software is protected from Piracy, people won't buy Macs if you can buy PCs in which you can run tons of easily available pirated software.

I hope the trend changes. The Mac is a great platform; I'd like to see it succeed in Asia.

What about China and India?

Poor Creative - about to gets its head on a platter in its own backyard. Maybe they'll out-innovate and put an AM tuner which is what all the iPod people are waiting for.