The insanely great songs Apple wont let you hear. – By Paul Collins – Slate Magazine
This article gets right at what I’ve said a few times before…there’s a lot of great music hiding on other country’s iTunes sites. The broadband era has made it easier than ever to become exposed to great international music (both legally and not). I’ve grown a real (expensive) taste for Japanese music in the last year and a half, partly with help finding good bands on iTunes, and it’s always frustrating to know that it’s just licensing agreements holding Apple back from opening up more artists internationally.
To be fair, there are a lot of international acts starting to show up on iTunes America–partly thanks to the efforts of a licensing company whose name escapes me at the moment. Still, I know of at least a few great (Sony) bands that will never make it on to iTunes, regardless of country. Perhaps Norway is on to something.