Apple launches iTunes Store in PHL, 11 other Asian territories

Good news for music fans in the Philippines: Apple Inc. on Wednesday launched its iTunes Store in the Philippines and 11 other territories in Asia. In a news release, Apple said the iTunes Store in Asia will have an "incredible" selection of local and international music from major and independent labels. "The iTunes Store features local artists including Jay Chou, Girls Generation and Andy Lau, international artists including ADELE, The Beatles and Jason Mraz, and world-renowned classical musicians including Lang Lang, Yo Yo Ma and Yuja Wang," it said. "Customers can choose from over 20 million songs available to purchase and download on the iTunes Store," it added. Aside from the Philippines, the iTunes Store was launched in Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Vietnam. With the new iTunes Store, customers can also rent or purchase movies, with many available in HD, from major studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures. The iTunes Store joins the App Store which offers more than 650,000 apps to consumers in 155 countries. "The iTunes Store is the best way for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. All music on the iTunes Store comes in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings," Apple said. It also said its "iTunes in the Cloud" software lets one download previously purchased iTunes music to all his or her iOS devices at no additional cost. New music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all devices, it added. "Music not purchased from the iTunes Store can gain the same benefits by using iTunes Match, a new service that stores your entire music library in iCloud for access at any time, from any iOS device. iTunes Match is available for purchase in the new countries added today," Apple said. Apple said iTunes 10.6.3 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from apple.com/asia/itunes. It added iTunes Store purchases require a valid credit card with a billing address in country. — LBG, GMA News