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Topic History of: For our Tipsters down under - what's the iTunes situation there? Do they pay MCPS as in UK?
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)

Author	Message
KZ	Hi JK, Ive tried to answer your questions as accurately as possible so here goes: what's the iTunes situation there? Do they pay MCPS as in UK? Are they established and successful in both Oz and NZ? KZ Itunes only arrived in Australia within the last 6 months and as of now there are no official statistics on how well they have done. The download chart will officially launch within the month. So far downloads have not overtaken singles yet. They pay mcps through APRA/AMCOS www.apra.com.au who have signed up all the leading digital etailers. Wait for the full sales figures to be published from www.aria.com.au in march and we will see. Can others (like Asia) buy iTunes through OZ or do they all have their own stores? KZ Technically no. You are not allowed to buy from Itunes OZ unless you are within Australia or have an Australian Credit card. Other territories will have their own Itunes Store. What are restrictions on iTunes sales? Must they be with local credit cards? KZ Yes you would need to be in Australia or use an Australian credit card. There are ways around this which are far to technical for me to go into. And what's the situation on e-bay, Amazon etc on that? KZ As far as i know you can purchase any item on ebay from anywhere in the world unless they specify otherwise. Amazon will ship most things to anywhere in the world and it should be possible to buy a CD produced in the UK from ebay or amazon in Australia. Not so with digital downloads. Can I buy a US only release on my UK credit card? Isn't that breaking copyright territory laws? If it's not SIGNED for the world? KZ Depends. Parallel imports should make it possible for you to buy it from a US store that will ship to the UK. Digital is a different beast altogether. I dont know why they cannot have reciprocal agreements and do something akin to how ASCAP, PRS etc operate. If the RIAA, BPI, AIM and their equivalent got together and created a one stop shop global distribution system which calculates all the payments in each territory. It cant be that hard can it ? How do artistes protect themselves? Can't and don't Universal, for example, sell downloads to tracks they only own for the USA in OZ and the UK and so on? KZ They can do it if they want to and that is why it is necessary for a third party body, (BPI maybe ?) to administer this and ensure that all parties get paid from, the producing label, the licensee and of course the artist. As i cannot see this happening in a hurry i think artists will realise that in the digital age being on a major is a disadvantage. Marketing no longer costs the earth. Digital distribution makes it available instantly and as long as you have a trustworthy distributor and as long as you have access to records from Itunes etc artists can make a lot more money from downloads than with hard copies. IPODs are hugely successful here as are ringtones so downloads will be successful when the labels back it 100%.
DJones	All legal download sites pay mechanicals. The rights of songwriters are quite good protected because of their collective copyright societies. (In 2000 the NMPA sued UMG (farmclub.com) because Universal was selling tracks without paying mechanicals.) It's a totally different story for artists. There were lots of cease-and-desist orders from artists like Dixie Chicks, Dr. Dre, Beck, No Doubt and Offspring when the majors started selling downloads (MusicNet, Pressplay) in 2001.
JK2006	Are they established and successful in both Oz and NZ? Can others (like Asia) buy iTunes through OZ or do they all have their own stores? What are restrictions on iTunes sales? Must they be with local credit cards? And what's the situation on e-bay, Amazon etc on that? Can I buy a US only release on my UK credit card? Isn't that breaking copyright territory laws? If it's not SIGNED for the world? How do artistes protect themselves? Can't and don't Universal, for example, sell downloads to tracks they only own for the USA in OZ and the UK and so on?