Speaking of the iTunes Music Store, we're sure that the non-U.S.-residing members of our viewing audience are probably bored and/or frustrated within centimeters of death by now, given the marked increase in the music-to-Mac drama ratio on AtAT in the past year. Remember, U.S. dwellers: as of yet Apple still hasn't gotten around to pushing the iTMS out there to our neighbors abroad, so all this stuff about iMixes and free songs and whatnot mean absolutely nothing to them. Sure, the iTMS is an Internet-based service, but it's like all that hippie talk about the "electronic global village" and "no borders on the Internet" came to zilch. Sadly, that's the state of things: the Internet may not recognize national borders, but lawyers certainly do. And music needs to be licensed.

So what's the holdup, already? Well, as far as we know, Apple has only publicly acknowledged working on two international markets for the iTMS so far: Europe and Canada. As far as Canada's concerned, until two weeks ago we really hadn't heard anything (other than a whole lot of incessant whining from the Great White North-- all that free health care must have made them go soft, or something) since the president of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency announced that licensing negotiations with Apple were "under way" and that Steve Jobs had told him that "Apple couldn't wait to come to Canada." That was, um, over six months ago, so evidently Steve could wait, at least a little while. Recently AppleInsider claimed that the CMRRA was "just as frustrated as you" about the iTMS's continued non-Canadianism, but reportedly negotiations with both the CMRRA and the record labels are now "in the final stages" and "we should expect news of their launch [in Canada] in the near future." Whatever that means.

As for the delay in Europe, well, that may be slightly juicier: faithful viewer frozen tundra pointed out an article in The Independent which reports that "music labels are dragging their feet" on the whole licensing process because "they fear [Apple's] long-promised European music download site will dominate the online business." The argument is that, if iTMS Europe captures 70% of the market the same way the U.S. version has done, Apple would have the power to "dictate which stars or records succeed or fail by deciding which to promote on its site." Wow. When was the last time Apple had to contend with people worried that it'd abuse its monopoly power? This am Bizarro World. "No iTMS Europe? Us am so happy!"

When all's said and done, though, we're sure that all parties will come around eventually and before too much longer, Americans, Canucks, and Europeans alike will all be downloading legal tunes together in the global spirit of peace and harmony. You know, kinda like when all those people joined hands in that old Coke commercial. And the utter stomping underfoot of MyCokeMusic.com will simply be an incidental irony, of course.