So what else is there ? There’s downloading stuff from the net through sites like seekasong, mpeg-search, and other sites which allow free MP3 downloads. But hell, how can you download a song before hearing it ? I mean the entire use of these sites was in the days when you heard James Blunt belting out “You’re beautiful”; or felt blessed on discovering bands like Vertical Horizon. You listened to the songs a couple of times on the radio and then downloaded them. Free of cost.
Today, I'm willing to pay for downloading music from the biggest online seller of music - iTunes. And I can't. Which gets me to my peeve of the day - Why hasn’t Apple launched iTunes in India ? No, I’m not talking about tie-ups with Hungama (what a ghastly website) or Saregama. Those tie-ups are specifically for making Indian music available to a global audience. I’m talking of how iTunes can make global music available to an Indian audience.
How much does it take for Apple to add “India” to its list of countries ? Currently – and as Apple’s teeny-weeny disclaimer at the end of its web page reads – “Purchases from the iTunes Music Store are available only in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.” Dude, that’s 21 countries and India is nowhere there.
So if I’ve got it right, I can’t buy any music on iTunes because I’m in India. But anyone, in any of those 21 countries, can download Gulzar, Bhupinder and even the OST of the new Don from iTunes. Ironical ? Probably because catering to niche audiences doesn't get you the moolah. Probably because Apple believes that they can’t crack the market for Hindi music downloads (read piracy) the way they revolutionised music downloads in the USA. As for English music downloads, Apple firmly believes that no one in India is interested in the Billboard hot 100. We wouldn't know Rihanna from Shakira, leave alone wanting to download Justin Timberlake’s sexyback. Oh right, we’re still in love with Abba, Boney M and Osibissa.
If all this is true, then why is Apple so gung-ho about launching its latest ipods in India ? Why is Apple tying up with HCL Info to set up a distribution and after-sales network, not only for ipods but Macs as well, in India ? Why is Apple opening up retail outlets in India ? All this hype and hoopla, without including India in their list of 21 privileged countries authorised by Apple to have a valid iTunes account?
I’ll tell you what else is ironical. Even if I can’t download the #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from itunes, I can listen to Bill Maher’s completely brilliant talk-show "Real Time". I can also listen to Ricky Gervais and Chris Moyles. Hell, I can even get the most e-mailed article on the New York times read out to me. Glory be – all these are free podcasts.
Perhaps there is some justice in this world.
PS- This post eventually got printed in "Man's World" magazine (Nov-06 issue, page 34, no link available), attributed, unfortunately, to a pseudonym (don't even ask why).
Technorati tags: India, Bombay, Music, Entertainment, MP3, Itunes, Apple.
38 comments:
The fault lies more with Indian producers who are still reluctant to give the rights rather than Apple. It hardly costs Apple a dime to increase the server space for songs. Btw even in the US lot of music fans claim Itunes is too pop heavy for their liking.
You can read my post on how we have not reached the long tail of music downloads in India as yet.
http://booletpoint.blogspot.com/2006/09/long-tail-and-indian-media.html
As far as not being able to download from iTunes, you would not really want to pay about $2 for each song that you want to download. Even if you are ready to shell out that much, not many people including me are happy paying Rs 80. Try allofmp3.com, it has more songs and collection that iTunes, is legal, DRM free and is almost 1/10th the cost of iTunes. I know many people in India who use this site.
Other than managing music easily through iTunes, do you see any other reason why you would want to pay that high for a DRM infected song?
Hey, thanks for the visit Jayesh. Your point is valid. But even if all the Hindi music ever made is available on itunes, it doesn't benefit me because I'm in India - a country not recognised by itunes for music download.
And that's the damn stupidity of it all. On the one hand, Apple's gung-ho about the ipod in India. Now lets assume Yashraj gives rights to their entire music library (theoretically video should also follow going by Apple's strategy). And lets assume there are 100K ipods in Bombay ? But not a single one of them can download a song from Silsila, Dhoom, Bunty aur Babli, etc. from itunes just because itunes doesn't have India in its list of countries.
Hell perhaps the Indian producers would rather that the software pirates in India make money than Apple in the USA.
Sumeet - thanks for that link. I will definitely try it out. The broader point I was making specifically on itunes was - and I said above - is there a point to hyping up Apple in India without letting us create an itunes store account ? Its ironic then because with sales of ipod going up, people would increasingly use sites like the one you mentioned as well as the friendly neighbourhood software pirate to download music.
Apple has hardly revolutionized the downloads market in the USA.
For all the hoopla surrounding it, iTunes is
"http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20060923/apple-itunes-ipod-music-download-p2p.htm">not that big a deal here.
I've purchased exactly ZERO songs from it in the last 3 years. AlMost all users I know resort to either p2p or their private CD collection for filling up the iPod.
iTunes' absence in India probably has something to do with licence rights and sharing of royalty?
Dont you get a Hindi movie songs CD for as low as 100 to 150 Rs. ? Atleast I got my Swades CD for 125 Rs., That is full lossless music. Now why would you buy a low quality music (128kbps) from iTunes for 40Rs per song. I have an iPod, but I fill music from my CD. I rip them at 320Kbps MP3 which retains good bass and quality of music. I have bought a few songs from iTunes and am not exactly happy as the CD quality. Until Apple goes lossless with the music, I aint gonna buy from them. iPods are cool, I will keep them.
KM - I have absolutely no idea what itunes absence in India has to do with. At this rate I think more ipods means more p2p activity and more moolah for music piracy. Excellent.
Dinesh - valid point. The only reason I'd have to buy music from itunes is that most p2p sites are banned at the place I work. Besides, I also prefer single downloads to buying entire albums, unless they're really good, like - and I guess you'd agree - Swades. Since I've never downloaded anything from itunes (bar the free podcasts) I wouldn't know anything about their quality. Thanks for the visit.
The answer is simple: Licensing of music. What makes you think they wouldnt be interested in opening the store for Indian public if they saw moolah in it? Its obvious that they dont see the ROI on it.
And frankly I could run and get a Mp3 CD in india (with nearly 150 songs on it) for 50 bucks - why the hell would I even use iTunes to purchase music.
S
Supremus - If they don't see ROI in it, then (a) why can't they at least let people from India download international stuff from iTunes (it'll give them some revenues without any big costs. Amazon does it, as do so many others) and (b) why are they hyping up their presence in India ?
To paraphrase you - Frankly, I could sit at my desk (why even run ?) and get music for free. Why the hell would I even pay Rs50 ?
So, here's what I'm saying - it's a bit more specific than any music, any where, any way. When I talk music downloads, I'm talking
1. English music
2. A huge library
3. The legal way
I thought iTunes fit all of the above but shucks, they don't allow me to download. Hence the peeve, hence the post.
Don't for a minute think that I consider iTunes as the Holy Grail. It's only an option. In fact - and as can be seen from above comments - itunes isn't exactly very popular.
And thanks to the above comment I've also got the tip of allofmp3.com (thanks again Sumeet).
Heh :) I never knew a peeve could be written so nicely.
And the good thing is now Sumeet has given you a wonderful solution. And hey please be telling me good artists you keep stumbling upon :D
Congratulations, very interesting article this.
AC
Lot's of reasons why this does not happen:
- There are not that many global indians with broadband. You need fast connections to truly enjoy iTunes (and buy from it)
- Why buy when you can pirate? It's too easy to get a pirated Hindi song.
- Which songs should they include? There must be over a billion hindi songs.
Reasons why iTunes should be in India:
- We like our music and are willing to pay big sums for lots of it.
- iTunes gives us a good platform to spread our culture. There are not enough of these.
-Amit
http://www.ipatrons.com
yup, i agree with you. and to add to your woes, i hear jaggu's gonna be leaving soon too. i dunno why they do that! take great english-music shows off air and broadcast saas-bahu serials on radio instead. i was in blore until abt a year back. when radio city was first launched there, they had late night shows that played amazing alternative stuff, and a brilliant retro show. then they took it all off air, and aired kyunki...instead. no kidding! when i came to bombay and heard Go, i thanked my stars. but it's the same story again. hmmm...am i carrying some sort of virus with me?
did anyone even read this whole article???? because he's been crying for ENGLISH, FUCKIN HARDCORE ENGLISH music!!!!! but curiously people keep posting about hindi music.
hindi music is an entirely different issue.
and why do you think if itunes ever launched in india, it would offer a single song at 40 rs (=99 cents)? surely apple's not so stupid. it would certainly price songs at not more than 10, probably 6-7 Rs.
but the question is when?
though i am quite geek enough to dig up some of the rarest songs on the internet, i would be willing to shell off 6-7 Rs. for a song if itunes is ever available here. and i think people who swear by the likes of bruce springsteen and bryan adams and linkin park, would be ready too.
it must be something to do with internet bandwidth in india, but even this is improving now. we might actually have an itunes store for india in near future, i am positive.
Rajveer - Thank you..at least you understood that, and for me that's more than enough. Here's hoping iTunes does in fact come to India soon. Thanks for the visit and comment.
As mentioned above by some people, the reason why itunes aint peddling any of its music in india is cuz
1.The entertainment companies in india like MTV and sony BMG are total sloths who hog all the rights to music and care about showing painful reality shows rather than good music
2.We Asians are unscrupulous music pirates. See the situation with windows XP. I think less than 20% of home users use legal versions of all the software they have on their machine.
I naively found some arbitrary email address of Steve Jobs(supposedly) and mailed the address but got no reply. Either it was the wrong one r they dont care. Anyways I am counting on some big indian company young and fast on its feet coming and filling the void which Itunes is not trying hard enough to fill. Rediff.com has already started.
Tango - thanks..unfortunately, rediff.com is still not anything great for English music.
we live in a poor country guys, hate this place and no , i dont think itunes planson coming to india, it never will, heck people are dying on the road and you have to walk on dogo shit evrywhere , and we talking apple selling bob dylan and springsteen, haha.- ani
Exactly!!!
What's the point of my purchasing my wonderful 80 gig iPod video if I CANNOT DOWNLOAD MOVIES AND MUSIC from iTunes.
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of preventing piracy ... if I can't download from iTunes, where do you (idiots at Apple) think I WILL download from???!!!
And as for saying that Indians won't buy music ... if you (again, the lemmings at Apple) price it at a reasonable price for Indians rather than simply transposing dollars to INR, heck yeah, I WOULD buy from iTunes ... that is, if you HAD AN iTUNES INDIA STORE!!!!!!!!!
Ok, I'm done ranting now...
/e goes and plays with her iPod.
Oh, and Rajveer, you and I seem to be the only people who actually READ the post correctly... I'm not interested in downloading Hindi music anyway.. it's easily available with friends and the music CDs are cheap too....
I wouldn't be a pirate if I had cheap options!!! A millionaire I ain't!!!
Oh, and by the way, ordering from the Apple Store online - you need a US/UK credit card... hahahaha!!!!!!
And people, do buy the radio remote.. awesome!!!!
Subu - Thanks for those comments! Glad you agreed with my pov!
Hey Bombay addict,
I totally agree with u ! its not just music that u can download frm itunes, im looking for a Few episodes of an animation TV series but im not able dwnload it frm India .
I think its not abt paying Rs.80 for a song but its abt ur need.If u need
u will pay any amnt to get it.
itunes shld be made available in India
Jayesh - Thanks for the comment, I agree with what you're saying!
i completely agree with you..!
i have an ipod touch,i'd love to get the january upgrade but i cant.
i want to be able to buy applications for it once the SDK is launched,i cant.
and trust me,i love apple,
i'm currently on a macbook.
but its really quite frustrating.
what i dont understand is that since its over the internet it doesnt hurt them if some users join in from other countries and infrastructure wise im guessing it does not cost much since the content is already on their servers,it only depends on the kind of connection users here are on.
shivahuja - I was thinking on the same lines and I don't know what Apple's thinking. But with the new store now opening up in Hyderabad (via Reliance Retail) who knows, they might wake up soon! Thanks for the comment!
There is Soundbuzz that allows legal downloads of English music at Rs 20 a pop. But the format is DRM protected WMA files, which won't play on an Ipod. Compatibility issues and the lack of choices in India for legal downloads drive people to piracy! When will these companies get it?
My favorite saying nowadays: Apple is the new Microsoft.
Anon - They don't. And I don't know if they ever will. Thanks for the comment and that tip!
So... this soundbuzz site will not let me download with my Safari browser... I need to have IE. I shudder to think of what my fate would have been if I were using a Mac :D
Aj - thanks for the comment and heads-up!
Itunes has opened for INdian registration. Did that this week. Yes, it was frustrating wait.
Tum lon gandu hoh isi liye india me Itunes nahi hae ! Simple enuf ?
It's because apple doesn't feel India is a lucrative enough market i mean face it we're not going to pay $2 for a song very few ppl will..
just watch vh1 and use lime-wire!
i hate the fact it doesn't accommodate India but what the hell?! we wouldn't use it that much.
I havent read all the comments but I would just like to say that apple does have the 'rights' to sell that content in India..its not as simple as just adding India to their list of stores....India is not a big enough market for them...u may be willing to buy a song for 46 bucks...I most definately wont and they know that...so whats the use in going through all that trouble for the business entity for hardly any money...its business dude its not personal..chill
I am so shocked...appalled...and downright insulted!!! The fact that music downloads are not available to us in India took two whole days to dawn on me!! I kept searching the Itunes store...kept looking up tutorials frantically till the discreet grey lettering caught my eye "Music is available in the itunes store in select countries"!!!!
Uhhhh!! I'm the same anon who was shocked and appalled.... Now I was delighted with Sumeet's post and wanted to thank him for the link he mentions...till I tried it out and BAZINGA...!!! Nothing...zilch...nada...i.e. NO MUSIC!!! Just some "music industry news"!!! Blah... :( ...Help Bombay Addict...
It''s quite impressive.
Finally I find you sir.. have been following you on twitter and recently was doing a research on Apple, Spotify etc. and the hurdles they face in entering Indian market and bingo it's a small world / came across your blog
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