Buying Music from iTunes?

Ok, so we?re all happy for Jason Tedjasukmana and the guys from Equinox DMD, for distributing the songs from Indonesian artist in the iTunes music shop, and therefore making it available (supposedly) worldwide. Or is it?

Alright, as you can see from the list here, there are more than 60 artists and bands ranging from the Indonesian major labels to the independent labels like Sore, Koil, Sajama Cut, Mocca, Homogenic, Suicidal Sinatra, BOTC, Cherry Bombshell, The Hydrant, Kubik, Media Distorsi, Pure Saturday, Netral, Seringai, Lain, WSATCC, The Miskins, Tika, G.E., The Milo, E.L.I., La Luna; solo artists like Dewi Lestari, Iwan Fals, Rieka Roeslan, Dewa Budjana, Krishna Balagita, Imel Rosalyn, Balawan, Vicky Sianipar; and compilations like Riot and OST Janji Joni. And if that wasn?t enough (although all three of the Simangunsong Sisters are on the list) there are also the big, hip and notorious Indonesian artists like Dewa and Dewa 19 (which makes them 20), and ahem.. Agnes Monica and Peterpan. Not on the band-wagon yet? Get your publisher to agree and try here.

The coolest thing about it, (beside the fact that everyone who is in countries far away from Indonesia could buy the songs, in the name of globalism) is that you can finally get the songs or albums that you?re been wanting to get your hands on but it is locally hard to find, because they are probably are in limited copies or distribution. There are even currently unpublished albums (in stores/hard-copy) like the brand new sophomore album from Homogenic (Echoes of the Universe) and the long-awaited solo debut from Dewi Lestari (Out of Shell).

Also there are some nice album packages like Seringai?s High Octane Rock, which contained 2 additional songs from their newest singles (and of course you can buy just one or two songs from it) and Mocca?s My Diary, which apparently, did not contain their first single ever, Secret Admirer in it, or anywhere else on the iTunes catalog. Never mind, it is probably just a glitch, in according to the press release, the biggest online music catalog in South East Asia.

With delicious features offered in this method, you can buy a hell lot of songs (more than 2 million songs and adding rapidly each week, in which you?ll probably be dead before you can hear them all) from a hell lot of international artists (and not just U2, Coldplay or Alicia Keys), except songs from the Beatles (because Apple Records have some legal battle for the name ?Apple?), Radiohead and Led Zeppelin (because they want their songs only to be available in albums only) and off course, Metallica (because Lars? Dad tells them to do so).

So what are you waiting for? Even Saddam Hussein bought Missy Elliot?s Work It to be played on his iPod in his cell. Download the newest iTunes, register with your credit card, and start buying!

Except.. Well, ahem.. there is this tiny little problem.. You MUST HAVE, i repeat, must have, a credit card addressed in one of these countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and Puerto Rico.

But fear not fellow Indonesian readers (and fellow local artists, who already put their album on iTunes, although we superstitiously predicted that currently, there aren?t many of your songs that had been bought more than Mocca?s), we have some tips for you, (your fans and the potential pirates in Glodok, Mangga Dua and Kota Kembang) to buy the songs without owning a credit card addressed in the countries mentioned.

Well, apparently the songs that are sold in iTunes Music Store are encoded using FairPlay-encrypted 128 kbit/s AAC streams in a mp4 wrapper, using the .m4p extension (whereas regular AAC files have the extension .m4a) at 128 kbit/s. Apple?s DRM (Digital Rights Management), FairPlay, is designed purposively so that the .m4p file (which contain the protected encryption) could only be played on iPods (speaking about monopoly?), iTunes/Quicktime, and some Motorola cellphones; plus some other restrictions in using the song.

However this DRM method in not unbreakable, you could burn your songs up to 7 times with the same playlist, and thus allow you to rip it again from the CD to other formats like MP3, to be played other MP3 players and share/copy it over and over again which legal status are unknown in Indonesia but it is clearly illegal in the United States under DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

And so, Apple is very strict in choosing the countries which they have decided to make the iTunes Music Shop available concerning the country?s law about digital music copyright violation. So far they?ve opened in most of the countries that are in North America and the European Union. Japan and Australia are the recent countries they?ve added in 2005, making Japan is currently the only Asian country to be added.

Considering Indonesia?s reputations as one of the biggest digital piracy centers in the world, you will have to probably dream that someday, someday your great great grand children can finally bought the songs from iTunes Music Store in Indonesia (I was saying this in exaggeration).

So, what are the options? Well, to start, you could ask your friends or relatives that owned a credit card addressed in the countries mentioned, to lend their credit card details so could you buy it from their card (and don?t forget to pay back amount you have used, kids!).

Or, if you could get your hands dirty on a stolen credit cards addressed in the countries mentioned, that would work too, but this is supposed to be illegal, off course.

You could also travel to the iTunes Music Shop that are opened in the countries mentioned, or make someone else who happened to be there, to buy an iTunes Gift Certificate in a certain amount on money. You can buy the songs on iTunes with the iTunes Gift Certificate that will work like a prepaid cellphone credits. (Or you could get someone who owned a credit card in USA to buy it from online stores like iTunes Online Shop, Amazon, or Paypal, and the bre and the bre, but off course that would be ridiculously complicated).

If all methods that are mentioned above is too lame (which I personally think it is) you can try this one other thing.

It?s the prepaid credit card. You can just go a site like this one (note: we are not affiliated with the sites), read the directions and the proper requirements carefully, enter the amount you wanted to cash-in, transfers your rupiahs via bank, and get your prepaid credit card details sent to you. And after that you can directly enter the details in the iTunes registration form and buy the songs that you wanted. It may sound a bit complicated but it?s quite simple once you?ve done it.

Well, we can?t describe how glad we are to finally see Indonesian artists on iTunes, and try to give you as much information as we could for our readers to access, buy and use it (hopefully in a legal manner!). If you had any other information, suggestions and other useful tips in this matter please don?t hesitate to use the comment form below.

Ryan Koesuma, March 2006

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