Earlier this week, Apple announced a new Australian iTunes Music store. This means that Australian Windows and Mac people can download and enjoy music on their computers and iPods just like those of us in the states.

According to internet sources, Apple typically pays AU $.99 per song, and sells the song for AU$1.69 -- an understandable markup. Unfortunately, I do not have details concerning Apple's fees here in the US to compare.

I think this is a great idea to expand the iTunes market further overseas. It makes a lot of sense to me to distribute the songs (intellectual property) through a legal means, and to ensure that the artist recovers the costs of making and marketing the music. Granted, I think that some musicians are overpaid, but that is the business process, and I do believe that if an artist makes a work public, that he/she should be compensated properly for it.

Now, if we can just get the movie people to do the same. Download a movie and watch it. Be allowed to make one copy of it for personal use. If the copy goes bad, gotta download it again. Yes, I know that the digitial videos are much larger than music files, but those of us with highspeed internet could download a movie overnight, and watch it the following day.

Austrailia, enjoy your new iTunes experience.

Christian