Two days ago, Apple started testing Russian iTunes, initially planning to launch the service on November 20. But in Russia, the company faced a problem, because of which it postponed these plans indefinitely.
The agreement with the copyright holders created difficulties for the launch of iTunes in Russia. Apple was able to obtain license rights to a quarter of the Russian music catalog from Rights Communications, but to sign a contract with Muz.ru it has not succeeded yet. Plus, there is no company in Russia that manages the general rights to music on the Internet. By negotiating with each copyright holder individually, Apple can lose a lot of time.
Many people associate the appearance of iTunes in Russia with the beginning of the fight against unlicensed copies of music. Knowing about the love of Russians for downloading music from pirated resources, Apple deliberately reduced the cost of songs in iTunes to 15 rubles instead of $ 0.99.
Ideally, according to Vedomosti, Apple plans to link the launch of iTunes in Russia with the launch of iPhone 5 sales in the first week of December. Although Apple itself does not specify either the start date of smartphone sales or the start of the service.