Can't buy itunes music in UK from europe store

[surferfromuk]

Why can't I do this?.

It's absolutely stupid.

I can go onto Amazon and order a CD from Amazon that comes from Germany or Italy but I can't buy a record from a european itunes store from the UK.


It's so annoying because I want to buy LOTS of things from euro stores but some stupid barrier is stopping me.

Can anyone explain this ludicrous policy ?

 

[gnasher729]

Why can't I do this?.

It's absolutely stupid.

I can go onto Amazon and order a CD from Amazon that comes from Germany or Italy but I can't buy a record from a european itunes store from the UK.


It's so annoying because I want to buy LOTS of things from euro stores but some stupid barrier is stopping me.

Can anyone explain this ludicrous policy ?

I can explain it quite easily.

When a musician makes a record, various companies or sub-companies will get the right to sell that record exclusively in one country. For example, Universal Records USA might have the rights in the USA, Universal Records UK has the rights for UK, Universal Records Germany might have the rights for Germany, Holland and Luxembourg and so on.

In this case, Apple might have a contract with Universal Germany allowing it to sell a record in Germany and Holland, but not in the UK (they have of course another contract with Universal UK and so on). Should the German iTMS sell a record to a customer in the UK, Universal Records UK could sue Apple. Note that I take Universal just as an example.

Now you may think that it is all the same company, so why should one Universal branch complain if another branch makes money? Well, for starters, the boss of Universal UK probably gets a bonus depending on _his_ sales, and _he_ is very unhappy if Universal Germany makes the sale.

This is of course all ludicrous, but that's the way it is.

 

[surferfromuk]

Cheers for the explanation, Gnasher.

Ludicrous and it also doesn't make any business sense whatsoever.

You think they could devise a system whereby if the same artist appears in both the UK and Germany and it's bought from the UK then the UK division get's the sale but if it's an artist that only exists in Germany and it's bought from the UK store then

a) why would the UK division care
b) The german division rightly get's the sale.

I do hope this alters because I now find CD buying really annoying when having to import. It takes forever to come ( if it doesn't go missing!!) and costs at least twice as much a portion of which is just wasted on postage!.