Talking of Apple, iTunes has finally arrived in Australia. The Apple download service has been a long time coming there, mainly due to drawn out licensing negotiations with the major record companies. As it is, the service launches without the support or catalogue of SonyBMG who have followed their Sony Music sister company in Japan in choosing not to be part of the Apple platform, in the short term at least. While deciding to go ahead with their launch despite the absence of one of the four major record companies, Apple said they remained confident they would get SonyBMG on board. iTunes VP Eddy Cue told reporters: "We are working with Sony and we know their artists would like to be a part of the launch".
Apple's iPod has been on sale in Australia for some time now and many insiders have blamed the lack of a domestic iTunes for the relatively high amount of illegal file sharing that goes on in the country. Existing Australian based download platforms also have large gaps in their catalogue due to licensing issues, and critics of the music industry argue that record labels are in no moral position to complain about copyright theft being committed on P2P networks whilst their music is not available from legitimate sources. Apple and the other labels will be hoping that, despite SonyBMG's absence from the equation, iTunes will be able to turn illegal file sharers into legitimate digital music customers. At launch iTunes will sell tracks from A$1.69 each (71p), with videos available for A$3.39 (£1.43) and most albums for A$16.99 (£7.19).