i understand that apple can’t necessarily do something about it, but there should be a warning somewhere. otherwise it’s like “merry Xmas! this present can’t be unwrapped!”

Its a difficult situation because new budding artists do need the music industry. The industry takes a big risk on these new artists, so to maximize returns they slice and dice the world.

Question is how can the artists be served at every stage of their career without the need for the music industry?

Josh Groban’s album was bought and paid for by WEA/Reprise (the record label). In the purchase process they negotiated the rights to that album to retail as they see fit in North America. The cost of purchasing the rights to distribute and sell the album internationally would have been a different price point.

The problem is the same old world problem that record labels still face today…. They think that territories and rights stop at the boarder. AND labels are cheap!

WEA/Reprise probably has a limited promotional budget and only focused on promoting the album in the USA. Because of the promotional limits they probably didn’t bother buying the international rights to the album. WEA/Reprise probably believed that Josh’s audience would only exist within their promotional net.

In your case, you wanted to gift a song to someone who is outside of the labels expected core audience. Your “unique case” would have been expected in their marketing matrix, but they would’ve figured it would be so small compared to their audience that it wouldn’t justify spending the extra money in purchasing the international rights to represent that album.

Just calling WEA/Reprise cheap wouldn’t cover the issue.

They conveniently hide their oversight behind iTunes and the mess you went through. While you’ve directed your frustration at Apple, the real source is the label. Apple simply retails the music as directed by the label. If the label does not have rights, or is not interested in retailing music in a specific region, they won’t pay Apple the costs of hosting that music in that region.

So if WEA/Reprise had have purchased the global rights to retail Josh Groban’s Noel album, and made that option available on iTunes, you wouldn’t / shouldn’t have had that problem.

As for artists retailing their music online: Definitely, retail your music in all music markets. Definitely use both iTunes and a secondary mainstream retailer such as Amazon or eMusic. Be sure that the secondary retailer allows for DRM free files which allow for sharing.

In closing: Mainstream labels STILL don’t understand the new music landscape, nor do they understand the value of social media and how music is discovered and shared.

1. That rights aren’t universally granted to organizations like iTunes in the USA (which is why we Canadians can’t buy 99% of TV shows through our iTunes store)

2. That commerce online sometimes reflects offline. For example, if I were to buy a lottery ticket for my dad, here’s the deal: I’m in Ontario; he’s in Nova Scotia. He can’t cash in a winner from me down there; different lottery corps. We don’t have Target stores here. Doubtful I could use a Target gift card.

Not disagreeing with your point — it SHOULD be easier to be legally compliant. But it’s a difficult set of challenges to address.