As much as I love my Apple TV, I’m still rather irked that Apple is yet to offer a Netflix substitute for its U.K. users. It now seems that Apple has snubbed those of us across the pond once again with its iTunes cloud services, which apparently won’t be making their way to the U.K. anytime soon.
When Steve Jobs presented iCloud and all of its wonderful features at WWDC yesterday, the one that really impressed me was iTunes in the Cloud. There’s nothing enjoyable about downloading a song on your iPhone, then having to sync it to your computer and back to your iPad, iPod touch, etc., just to listen to it on all of your devices. iTunes in the Cloud means your new purchases are “automatically everywhere.”
Then there’s iTunes Match: another awesome feature that lets you “store your entire collection, including music you’ve ripped from CDs or purchased somewhere other than iTunes,” allowing you to access your entire library on any of your devices, anywhere.
Unfortunately, however, right now these features are only available to those in the U.S. only, and they may not be touching down in other countries anytime soon. CNET UK contacted Apple for comment, but its U.K. representatives say that there’s currently no information on either of these services for Britain.
Isn’t that a kick in the teeth?
While I can understand that iTunes Match may require Apple to negotiate with all of the necessary record labels before it can enter the U.K., I can’t understand why iTunes in the Cloud cannot be available to all – regardless of where you reside. We can sync our music to all of our devices anyway, all this feature does is makes our lives a whole lot easier.
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
29 responses to “Apple Snubs U.K. Again – iTunes Cloud Services Not Coming Anytime Soon”
Drop the MAY it DOES require the labels. And you can bet that they didn’t want a blanket world wide permission on this gig. They are the ones saying ‘US only’ just as much as the networks and studios are saying ‘no repeat downloads’ on video products.
Sure Apple could say F U to all of them. But when the lawsuit hits they would be in the wrong. And not only would they be out much more than $100mil they would probably lose their contracts for selling such items as well. And lets face it, while iTunes ain’t no big money maker by itself, it is part of what sells the hardware. So Apple isn’t going to knowing screw themselves like that
This is probably awaiting the completion of a European data centre. Since Jobs mentioned three were under construction at the moment, and the press was not aware of any of these, we can perhaps hope that one is being built somewhere in Europe as we speak.
I suspect part of the problem stems from ?TV here still lacking TV rentals OR iPlayer OR Lovefilm. While Apple might be working hard behind the scenes to secure deals, it too often looks to users like the company settles with great features in the US and thinks “screw it” elsewhere. Hell, that might even be the case—who knows? Certainly not anyone who asks Apple, because the company isn’t telling.
So how about other iCloud services?
Some part of iCloud is working in the UK around the App Store. You can download apps that you haven’t synced to your device if you’re running iOS 4.3.
True though that the music part isn’t running for the UK.
They don’t need to make a deal for iPlayer – it’s pretty much open – any developer provided they adhere to standards can just create an iPlayer client. If crappy little companies like YouView and FetchTV can make clients for their living room devices, then Apple can.
It’s almost the same deal with LoveFilm – they are begging for more user clients – Apple just can’t/won’t be bothered.
Does anybody know if the rest of the iCloud services will be available outside the US???
No, Apple didn’t snub us again…
I believe it was the record labels again.
Just as how the movie companies refuse to let me give them money for movies trough iTunes (In Sweden)
You won’t be able to re-download purchased music it seems but the rest will work it’s Apples own property so nothing stopping it. The music belongs to record labels who finally after all this time agreed to such a deal but only for the US
Does anybody know if the rest of the iCloud services will be available outside the US?
Oh, poor Britains, now you know how we Brazilians (and probably another half of the world) feel when a new feature isn’t available for us.
If all Britains are as full of bullshit as Brownlee and Bell, they’re getting what they deserve.
No big deal, just get a US iTunes Store account, its not massively difficult
Hey Bob,
I have to say that sounds very trollish. What examples have Brownlee and Bell given that are bullshity?
We live in a globally connected world and have a global economy. So when will record labels, film and TV companies start operating on a global level? Apple are trying, but the entertainment industry seems ti be slow to catch on.
Somebody mentioned having a US account for iCloud. I have both a US account (used to live there) and a UK account. I have songs bought in both. Will I be able to use iTunes Match?
Given Apple’s love of wrapping everything around one account I would say that you will be able to use iTunes Match on both accounts but you’ll pay $24.99 or eqiv for each account and they won’t be transferred between each other.
Cranial sphincter!
Well, Britains.. dont complain!! At least you have music downloads in UK.
Here in Brazil we dont even have that..
Even though i agree with most of people in here: its no up to Apple, its all about labels and their politics….
About “I can’t understand why iTunes in the Cloud cannot be available to all” I think this is not correct. I’m from Italy and if you visit Italian homepage you can see all of the information about iCloud are linked as the main topic on the homepage and anything is duly translated in Italian. Why should Apple do it if the service is not going to be soon available in Italy? They never did it with other services not available soon, nether for the iPhone when it was launched (the information about it was only available on the US website). So if it will be available in Italy soon I guess there is not reason it will not be the same for UK.
About “I can’t understand why iTunes in the Cloud cannot be available to all” I think this is not correct. I’m from Italy and if you visit Italian homepage you can see all of the information about iCloud are linked as the main topic on the homepage and anything is duly translated in Italian. Why should Apple do it if the service is not going to be soon available in Italy? They never did it with other services not available soon, nether for the iPhone when it was launched (the information about it was only available on the US website). So if it will be available in Italy soon I guess there is not reason it will not be the same for UK.
Seeing as iCloud, as part of iOS5, isn’t released till ‘fall 2011’ what is the basis for this non-story. How is Apple snubbing the UK?
If you read the UK apple website it redirects to the same page:
http://www.apple.com/icloud/
and suggests that all features are coming in the fall…..
Where did you source the facts of this ‘story’…. There is no suggestion that it will not be available in the UK in fall. Cnets story is just as thin on facts and it merely conjecture, they cite Apple as their source, hardly definitive…
So we wont get The Cloud in the UK and all the advantages it bring and we are now also unable to open a new MobileMe account, which means that anybody who opts in to the Apple scene will not be able to use any of the ‘cloud ‘ facilitles that MobileMe supplied either.
can’t believe it :( so disappointed
it looks like they’ve put a 90 day itunes account swapping lock on! if you login with a sperate account, you can’t use another one or revert back to your original account for a 90 day period!
The PRS arent a government organisation! They only represent a small
amount of publishers in the UK, so there is no reason at all why Apple
would wait for their approval!
I may be in a minority of one, but I don’t really care about iTunes match etc. What would be really useful however is…. over the air updates, pc free operation, documents in the cloud and personal stuff – contacts, backups etc.
If the labels are stopping/delaying a release of the music related stuff, cannot apple at least activate some of the rest of the good stuff in the meanwhile?
I do not consider this likely however, as, much as I love using their products, I am very aware that as a happy UK resident that I pay higher prices and get worse service than our american cousins.
So, after reading all kinds of things on the inet, it basically comes down to this: I cannot use iCloud music and books on my iphone, ipod and macbook (only apps.. o joy) because I do not live in the US????? what a bummer!