Apple still not singing the right tune in India

When it comes to buying music and movies for Apple products – iPod, Mac PC and iPhone – Indian users are left in the lurch simply because the US consumer electronics and software giant is yet to open an iTunes Store in the country. This even as most Apple products – variants of iPod and Mac – are available in the country, while the 3G iPhone is to be launched by the year end.

In countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, iPod or iPhone users can buy directly from iTune Stores. It’s legal and the quality of the music is guaranteed. Till date, the company has sold over five billion songs through its iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) and rented or sold over 50,000 movies per day, making it the world’s most popular online entertainment store.

In India, Apple users purchase entertainment content from other websites, at times from legitimate portals, but mostly end up buying pirated content in India. When contacted, an Apple spokesperson declined to comment stating that as a policy Apple does not comment on products and services that are yet to launched. The company also remained silent on whether it will open an iTunes Store in India.

An avid music lover and iPod user, Thomas Abraham (name changed), confesses, “How do I buy music for my touch iPods when I cannot buy it from the iTunes Store? I buy music from other sites such as MP3.com, Indiatimes.com, SaReGaMa.com and musicyogi.com, among others. Sometimes, I have to go for pirated music – mainly from illegal websites and burned on CDs – as some of the selections are not available on these websites.”

Others circumvent the system by buying legal music with dollars or cents using their global credit cards, or buying the music when they travel abroad.

Piracy is one of the major concerns of the Indian entertainment industry. It costs the sector a whopping Rs 16,000 crore, besides gobbling up over 8 lakh direct jobs every year, according to a Ficci report. The Indian Music Industry (IMI) estimates piracy to be around Rs 700 crore.

Meanwhile, Apple launched its App Store last month across 60 countries, including India. Through App Store, iPod users can down applications such as games, business, news and sports. But the iTunes Store will be music to the ears of Apple lovers in the country.