Itunes Store For Thailand Goes Live

[mjperry]

Hi all,

With the launch of the iPhone/iPod Touch 2.0 software today Apple has opened the iTunes Store for Thailand to go along with it for all you iPod Touch owners here. It only has applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch for now and no music but it's a start if you don't have an account from a country with a current store. Perhaps it could be a clue to a possible official iPhone launch for Thailand waiting in the wings, fingers crossed for that

[nikster]

Wow, genius. I was wondering how they'd handle selling iPhone apps internationally. And kind of dreading that it would be some sort of idiotic USA-and-three-other-countries thing. But this is great news

[sbk]

So, if you do have an account from a country that does offer music will it allow you to now buy music when overseas?

[mjperry]

So, if you do have an account from a country that does offer music will it allow you to now buy music when overseas?

As far as I know it's always allowed you to buy music from anywhere if you have an account in a country offering music sales, i.e. I have my UK iTunes account linked to a UK credit card and address and from that I can purchase music from the UK store from my laptop/iPhone here in Thailand.

They have now launched a Thailand native store, meaning you can sign up for an iTunes account using an address and credit/debit card from Thailand, something you wouldn't of been able to do before. The store only has iPhone/iPod Touch apps to buy for now, but hopefully they won't have gone to all the trouble of setting up the store without later adding music, etc

[kalif]

That's great news.

I'm also hoping for a iPhone 3G launch later this year, and this is step in the right direction.

[wpcoe]

I'm brand new to iTunes, just downloaded it and installed it today. I was looking for a free software utility to rip CD music to AAC files to transfer to my Nokia phone. (The Nokia music-transfer software doesn't even extract the song, artist or album names from the CD...)

When I created an account for iTunes Store via the iTunes software, I was presented with a page in Thai script, but I recongnized the "I accept these terms" button and pushed it and was taken to a page to enter my credit card info (with a note at the top to click there if the billing address were not in Thailand) and created an account.

All I want is to download the Album Art. Before creating the iTunes Store I got error messages saying I needed to create an account, so I did. Now, when I click on "Get Album Art," it goes online but returns with "Artwork for "xxx" could not be found. An unknown error occurred (3005)." I Googled that and got a few matches, but all in foreign languages.

Going to the "Home" page of iTunes Store via the iTunes software presents a page containing only software downloads (no music), presumably for iPhones and iPods?

My one only two credit cards (from my credit union in the USA) have a Thailand billing address. Is there anyway to access music files which apparently are NOT available on the Thailand iTunes store?

Is it possible for me to get the album art in Thailand?

[nidge]

If you want album art, why not look for the album on Google Image Search, http://images.google.co.th/

Nearly all my albums have the image taken from this site.

[wpcoe]

If you want album art, why not look for the album on Google Image Search, http://images.google.co.th/

Nearly all my albums have the image taken from this site.

Sounds good. How do I get it to display in the iTunes software?

[wpcoe]

Crikey, this 21st century technology that any eight-year old child can master, apparently is beyond my last century brain.

[edited to remove my diatribe against iTunes software ripping. Turned out it was an elusive step on my mobile phone to "Update Library" after transferring the AAC files from iTunes on my desktop computer. <sigh...>]

Edited August 26, 2008 by wpcoe

[nidge]

If you want album art, why not look for the album on Google Image Search, http://images.google.co.th/

Nearly all my albums have the image taken from this site.

Sounds good. How do I get it to display in the iTunes software?

Select the album in iTunes, rightclick "edit" or whetever it is you windows users do. Somewhere in the pop up box there will be a place for artwork. Drag the artwork to this space or double click on the space and select the artwork that way.

[wpcoe]

Thanks, for the directions, nidge. Next time I feel inspired to update iTunes, I'll give it a shot. It was traumatic enough yesterday to simply rip my music to my Nokia phone. I was saddened to find some of my older CDs have begun to deterioriate to the point that the music skipped and stuttered, when they never did in the past. To iTunes' credit, it dutifully ripped and converted songs with skips and stutters.

I did notice that iTunes connects with "Gracenote CDDB" to grab the track titles, I'm a little surprised it doesn't also access some external site for the album art.

[Rice_King]

Is it possible for me to get the album art in Thailand?

If all you want is album art, then registering an account in iTunes is overkill. MediaMonkey does a very good job of performing that function and it is free and requires no registration.

FYI: I use BOTH MediaMonkey and iTunes together on my music library without any conflicts.

You might also want to check out iTSfv, the iTunes Store file validator is an add-in for iTunes. It is aimed for iTunes users who are keen on maintaining or having the goal of achieving iTunes Store file standard tags for all the tracks in their iTunes Music Library.

[nidge]

I don't know why it doesn't do that with the album art either. Perhaps something to do with copyright?

If you copy songs to your iTunes library that did not come from a CD, (mp3's etc), you could use "Canto pod" from www.staylazy.net

I guess there's a windows version anyway. Also if you know of another CDDB you can change from gracenote in the preferences panel.

Nidge

[Spartacus]

Old thread, but still no music to be downloaded at the Thai itunes store??

Anyone have any idea if this will change or stay this way?

Cheers

[MeetJohnDoe]

Old thread, but still no music to be downloaded at the Thai itunes store??

Anyone have any idea if this will change or stay this way?

Not sure exactly what you mean. I am able to download music and videos (paid stuff) from the iTunes Store (USA) and I live in Pattaya.

Edited April 14, 2009 by MeetJohnDoe

[tominbkk]

Old thread, but still no music to be downloaded at the Thai itunes store??

Anyone have any idea if this will change or stay this way?

Not sure exactly what you mean. I am able to download music and videos (paid stuff) from the iTunes Store (USA) and I live in Pattaya.

Yeah you need a credit card with an address in a country which allows music downloads, outside of Thailand. They also restrict what free apps you can get for the iphone too, which is kinda shitty.

[Spartacus]

Old thread brought back to life, what about the tunes in the Thai iTunes store??

Know you have different options accessing other countries iTunes stores, but too much hassle when you could get your tunes right here, works with the applications, so why no tunes?

Not sure exactly what you mean. I am able to download music and videos (paid stuff) from the iTunes Store (USA) and I live in Pattaya.

I am talking about the Thai iTunes store, not the US iTunes store and you are only able to download from the US store because you are using a US pay system

[nikster]

the music business along with their licensing structure is stuck in an old world where everything is regulated on a per-country basis.

we are going through a painful transition right now where on the one hand, you have illegal downloads that provide everything you might want to get - just google for artist name and "torrent" and you will find. and on the other hand you have severely restricted downloads that are made available only on a per-country basis (like the old licensing system) and chances are whatever you are looking for is not available. quite often, I'd like to purchase music or tv content only to find I am not allowed to pay for it - the only option is to illegally download.