Hey everyone,

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t blog much in December. Well, frankly, not much really pissed me off in December. It’s Christmas. However, here’s something that really has pissed me off lately.

Since I am a Mac user, I use iTunes a lot. When the iTMS was introduced, I was excited to browse through all of the exclusives and there were a lot of good songs in there. One particular song was Less Than Jake – History of A Boring Town Acoustic Version. The Acoustic Version of what has been for several years, and is, my favorite song of all time. If you have not heard of this song, go download it. It’s part of the album Hello Rockview. I vowed that once the iTunes music store came to Canada, I would buy that song.

When the Canadian Music Store finally came, I was hit with a different problem. No credit card. I couldn’t convince my parents to use theirs but they said eventually we’d sign up. So I decide to hold off. When I check the music store in Canada, I see to my dismay that they no longer have Less Than Jake – History of A Boring Town Acoustic Version. I lose interest in the store. I see a few other exclusives I’m interested in – Sum41 and Yellowcard, and keep them in mind.

Just recently, we signed up to the iTunes music store. I was browsing through the music in this store when a thought suddenly occurs to me: what if the Less Than Jake song is only available on the American store? So I go check. Yes, it’s right there. The song I want. Just out of reach. And There’s no possible way to get it. As the end-user licensing agreement states:

Purchases from the iTunes Music Store are available only in the United States and are not available in any other location. You agree not to use or attempt to use the service from outside of the available territory. Apple may use technologies to verify such compliance.

In other words, screw you.

But here’s the crazy part. When I remember about the Yellowcard and Sum41 tracks on the Canadian Music Store, I look for the tracks and see that they’re gone! They have actually been taken offline of the store. This is stupid. SUM41 IS A CANADIAN BAND!!! And yet, they’re still online. On the American store.

So how many exclusives DOES the Canadian itunes music store have at this point?
I decided to try something: Search for the term “itunes exclusive” in the American store and then the Canadian store.
American Store: 79 album results
Canadian Store: 34 album results

And that doesn’t even begin to encompass most of the exclusives. For example. The three exclusives I was looking for above- Sum 41, Yellowcard, and Less Than Jake, did not even fall under the search “itunes exclusive”

Is there a reason why itunes is like this? Is Apple encouraging piracy in Canada? That is a long shot, but it is interesting to note that Canada doesn’t have a DMCA like the states and downloading (as far as I know) is perfectly legal here. Might the only way I am able to get this song is through piracy?

There’s another thing about the Canadian iTunes music store which is completely and utterly retarded. I’m sure you’ve heard of this thing called the iPod Video. Well, recently, the iPod video was released, and in the American iTunes Music Store, you could download TV Shows, Music Videos, and Pixar Shorts. Up here, no TV Shows for us.

All of us Canadians should bind together and form a protest group called “iTunes sucks, eh?”

I salute you all.