It was 2 days after Apple?s self-imposed deadline, but music lovers in Canada can finally download from the world?s #1 music download service, the iTunes Music Store. The store went online quietly around midnight Thursday, and then Apple confirmed it hours later in a press release.

The demand across Canada for the iTunes Music Store has been overwhelming,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Applications. “We are excited to be able to offer music fans in Canada their own customized iTunes Music Store featuring many top Canadian artist exclusives.”

Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan and The Tragically Hip all have exclusive tracks for the Canadian version, while McLachlan and K-Os put up exclusive videos.

Songs are being sold for 99 cents each, and albums for $9.99, making them the lowest prices for iTunes songs in the world. Converted to other currencies, it?s 83 cents U.S. (whereas Americans pay 99 cents), 43 pence in Britain (79 pence for the British), and 0.63 in Euros (0.99 for Europeans). Multiply numbers by 10 for album rates.

In October, Apple announced a European-wide iTMS, and at the same time announced the Canadian store would open in November. In late November, Apple announced they were still on track for a November launch, but when November 30 came and went, Canadian Apple fans were left disappointed.

?We said that we would launch the iTunes Music Store in Canada by the end of November, but we’re going to miss this deadline by a bit,” the company said. “You’ll hear from us very soon.? About 12 hours later, the service launched.

French Canadians don?t have to feel left out either. If you select France as your store, and then click ?Choisir le Store? and click the Canadian flag, the iTMS comes up in French, including some of the clickable links.

andPOP is an affiliate of Apple?s, and by clicking the iTunes link on our site, you can download songs to your computer, and help our website at the same time.






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