Internet1.10.2012

iTunes music for SA: rumour control

iTunes South Africa

September has come and gone and iTunes music has still not come to South Africa.

That’s not out of the ordinary, but for the prediction from the founder and CEO of Africori, Yoel Kenan, who told attendees of Mobile Entertainment Africa on 29 August 2012 otherwise.

Editor of Stuff Magazine SA, Toby Shapshak, tweeted the prediction and Kenan later told MyBroadband that he got the information from an internal source.

In his bio Kenan boasts 20-odd years in the music industry, having headed up MP3.com Europe and worked for Universal and Sony BMG.

Asked whether he had heard anything further since he said that iTunes would be coming to SA in September 2012, Kenan said that he had unfortunately not.

“You should contact the record labels in SA as they are in negotiations, or should be, with iTunes,” Kenan said.

iTunes music SA - Toby Shapshak on Yoel Kenan

iTunes music SA – Toby Shapshak quoting Yoel Kenan

Core Group, official distributor of Apple products in South Africa, previously said that there has been no announcement from Apple and that they have no further information.

Apple said that it does not comment on rumours and speculation.

A spokesperson from Warner Music Gallo Africa said that iTunes music in South Africa has been on the cards for a while.

Every year around September/October they hear Apple is bringing the iTunes music service to SA, the spokesperson said, only to have nothing happen.

Yoel Kenan

Yoel Kenan

This year seemed more positive than before, he added, but he explained that labels probably wouldn’t get advanced warning that iTunes was launching.

“How it worked in other regions is you get into work on a Monday and then we find out ‘we have iTunes today’”, the spokesperson said. “Apple is very secretive about it.”

General manager for the National Organization for Reproduction Rights in Music (NORM) in Southern Africa, Jill Galanakis, said that they too have very little information about iTunes music coming to SA.

“It’s more than a rumour, they are coming,” Galanakis said. However, NORM has no definite information at all at this stage, she added.

NORM would have to be approached, Galanakis explained, because it administers the majority of the copyrights. “We have all the major publishers, for a start, and we have local copyrights and indie publishers as well.”

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