Apple: Apple Music, iTunes Movies, and iBooks now available in China iTunes Store

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old34

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Apple today announced the rollout of it's Apple Music service-introduced last June in most western countries-iTunes Movies, which have long been absent from iTunes China, and iBooks, which had had a paltry selection previously of mostly free past-copyright classics like Pride and Prejudice.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/09/30Apple-Brings-Apple-Music-iTunes-Movies-iBooks-to-Customers-in-China-Starting-Today.html

The Apple Music service's expansion into China is a welcome step. When it was first announced last June with a 3 month free trial, I immediately signed up. through the US store. The kicker was that after the Trial period, you'd be billed $9.99/ month to continue. But during the trial period, you had free access to streaming all of Apple Music's library and could even save/add the streams to your own iTunes library for offline listening. And though you couldn't copy the songs off that copy, they were available to listen to on your other Apple devices.

The price of the Chinese version of the service? A paltry 10 RMB/ month. That's much moe palatable than the $10/month. Seems like Apple has gotten some smarts here in pricing their services (as opposed to their hardware) to the local market.

Then I went to the new Movies section of iTunes-China. Wah! Greatly expanded! Chinese movies, western classics, A few recents in both categories. Prices seem reasonable compared to Movies purchased through the US store. 10-15 RMB for full downloads of HD quality + Extras you can keep; 3-5 RMB for "renting the movie" for 30 days. Versus the prices of buying/renting Movies through the US store.

Again, I'm struck by the pricing decision Apple has made in introducing these two services to their China store. Yeah, I can go to the local DVD shop and get a DVD movie for 7-9 RMB, but it's a DVD and if I want to watch it on my other devices, I have to convert and transfer it. Plus, in my experience, with Pirated DVDs, the Extras sections (Director's Cut, Outtakes, Trailers) never function anyway. The China Apple Store prices are, again, much more palatable than what they're charging back home.

And they seem to be running a kick-off sale on some older/classic/well-known movies at 1 RMB to Own. I'm currently downloading Lost in Thailand 1 which cost me all of 1 RMB.

About the new iBooks: Not very good for us non-natives. The previous version of iBooks DID have a small but significant number of English language books for free. Most were out-of-copyright versions of classics much like you find for sale in your local Xinhua bookstore.

This new version opened today seems to be promoting Chinese authors and almost every offering is a Chinese book. Good for Chinese authors to finally get their books available through iBooks; not so good for those of us looking for English texts.

Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad: Apple Music- China-GOOD! ITunes Movies-China: GOOD! iBooks-China: Good for Chinese authors because they get a source of income, but, sorry, I'll have to buy the books I really want to read from the US Store.

P.S. For those Apple Loathers/Window Washers out there, I believe all these services are available through the Windows version of iTunes, if you dare to go there.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. - B. O'Driscoll.
TIC is knowing that, in China, your fruit salad WILL come with cherry tomatoes AND all slathered in mayo. - old34.

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old34

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It's working nice: Ripped a few Led Zepplin and Rush  Songs from the Apple Music cloud to my devices, Lana Del Ray, too (i'm a recent convert from one of out foreign studernt's here who was playing her stuff on his phone at the uni cafe.. So I ripped some of her songs now that I have Apple Music.

watching "Lost in Thailand 1" now in HD onmy Apple TV. Less than 2 hpurs to DL. And 1 RMB at that,
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. - B. O'Driscoll.
TIC is knowing that, in China, your fruit salad WILL come with cherry tomatoes AND all slathered in mayo. - old34.

Install Bigalow and Calibre then you can install music and books not downloaded from itunes.