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Music Media Businesses The Almighty Buck Apple

iTunes Accepts PayPal 299

Posted by timothy from the why-not-apples-in-payment dept.
lemist writes "Apple Computer Inc. on Friday said customers of its iTunes online music store can now use eBay Inc.'s online payment service PayPal to buy songs and audiobooks, becoming the second major online music store to do so. Story here."
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iTunes Accepts PayPal More

iTunes Accepts PayPal

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  • Damn it. (Score:3, Funny)

    by canwaf ( 240401 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @10:32PM (#11069886) Homepage Journal
    There goes all the money I set aside for my Christmas shopping.

    • Re:Damn it. (Score:3, Funny)

      by lxs ( 131946 )
      It works for me. I click on "here", and that's precisely where I end up. I wonder what happens when I click on "there"?

  • Where? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I keep clicking on the word "here" but I get no story.

  • Useless (Score:2, Informative)

    by -*Sex E. Beast*- ( 837853 )
    They may be now accepting Paypal, however your Paypal account must be linked to a credit card, which makes it completely pointless.

    • Re:Useless (Score:3, Informative)

      by tmbg37 ( 694325 ) *
      Not true, the article says that the PayPal account can be linked to a bank account or credit card, and you can also use funds already in your account.

      • Re:Useless (Score:4, Informative)

        by evil carrot ( 669874 ) <evilcarrot.lickable@net> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @10:43PM (#11069949)
        In order to take advantage of this method of payment, PayPal still requires a debit or credit card on file. Some people don't have either -- shocking, I know.

        I've had a bank account tied to my PayPal account for several years. However, when trying to follow the steps necessary to enable PayPal as my payment method for iTunes, I was prompted to enter a credit or debit card. There's no "Skip" button there, only "Cancel." That button does exactly what it suggests.
    • Paypal only requires a Bank Account to get the high-limit "verified" status.

      You can even use a "Matricular Consular" card, issued by the Mexican Government or any back-alley forger worth his salt, as ID to open a valid US bank account - US Citizen or not.

      So, I see no obstical to becoming a full-fledged on-line citizen either (an appearing as a USA bank account holder).

  • Got outta PayPal fees? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by chrispyman ( 710460 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @10:34PM (#11069904)
    I don't know how they can accept PayPal and still make a profit. Doesn't PayPal charge a per transaction fee on top of the percentage fee?

  • Overseas Consumers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @10:34PM (#11069906) Homepage
    Can overseas buyers buy from iTunes USA @ USD 99 cents?

    I've been looking for "useful" shops that accept PayPal so that I can use those money without losing on exchange rate.

    • Re:Overseas Consumers (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Calroth ( 310516 )
      Can overseas buyers buy from iTunes USA @ USD 99 cents?

      According to some other forums I've been reading, people outside the US with PayPal accounts have tried to sign up but have been knocked back. So I'm guessing that it's still US-only. (Maybe Apple will extend it to their international iTunes Music Stores in the future.)
      • But the point isn't to use PayPal to buy music from itms, it's to use PayPal to buy music from the American itms.

        The UK itms charges around £0.79 per track; at the current exchange rate, that works out as about $1.5, or around 50% more for the same chunk of data. That's why people (in the UK at least) are interested in using PayPal to buy from the US itms - it's a fuckload cheaper.
    • allofmp3.com [allofmp3.com]
    • No, sorry, you can't.

  • Woohoo! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Works from my PayPal account, and I'm australian!

    of course, I also have US info on it. But don't tell.

    The shiznit!

    • Works from my PayPal account, and I'm australian!

      I'm calling BS on this, especially as you're posting AC.

      I made a US info based PayPal account and even got as far as getting an iTunes based buyer ID for it, but as the credit card you HAVE to use to verify the account for iTunes was addressed in Australia, iTunes detected the country and rejected me.

      It seems the only way to set up an iTunes valid PayPal account from Australia, is to BE an American with a US credit card, visiting Australia.

      In which

  • Since paypal accepts debit payments to my knowledge, this opens the itunes market to those under the age of 18 in the United States. Not that they would pay for music...

    • Nothing new (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Wesley Felter ( 138342 )
      Debit and prepaid Visa/Mastercard have existed for years, and they work with the iTunes store.

    • Not really (Score:5, Informative)

      by ravenspear ( 756059 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @10:44PM (#11069954)
      Too bad it's against the Paypal TOS [paypal.com] for people under 18 to have accounts.

    • Re:Time for the 18 crowd (Score:4, Informative)

      by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Sunday December 12, 2004 @11:11PM (#11070057) Homepage
      Don't forget you can go down to local stores and buy prepaid iTunes "gift certificates." I saw a $15 dollar one at my local Target yesterday. All you have to do if pay $15 plus tax to the retailer and then buy 15 songs. Surely Apple stores (and I would expect other computer stores) sell them too.

      PS: I would assume that the artists/Apple get more money this way since you don't get PayPal taking their cut.

      PPS: Not to mention that with all I've heard of PayPal, I wouldn't trust them with anything but a credit card in the first place.

      PPPS: You can buy prepaid Visa cards (work just like debit cards and are accepted wherever credit cards are) easily too. So really this doesn't change anything.

      • PS: I would assume that the artists/Apple get more money this way since you don't get PayPal taking their cut.

        Say what? You think that Target, which has to pay for a living cashier, a huge store, electricity, overhead, security, etc., is going to be less expensive than flinging a few bits down the wire? For traditional CDs, the store itself typically gets half the price. They probably won't be quite so ridiculous with a paper gift certificate, but I would be shocked if the percentage were anywhere close t
      • You usually don't pay tax on a gift card. You would be double taxed because you'd pay sales tax on the gift card, and then you'd pay sales tax on purchases with the gift card. But now that I think about it, Apple collected sales tax when I ordered a $25 gift card online. And then they will probably collect tax on the iTunes as well. It's only supposed to be one or the other. Now I'm mad!!!

  • Yawn. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    DRM-locked music vendor takes new payment form. News at 11. Oh, wait--it's our beloved Apple?! OMG Why didn't you say so? +1, FP!!!!

  • The future's so bright, I gotta wear used shades! (Score:4, Funny)

    by grungebox ( 578982 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @10:48PM (#11069980) Homepage
    First Paypal then...eBay itself! Imagine being able to auction off iTunes songs you thought were badass but now think are just ass (I'm talking to you, Incubus fans) via the iTunes music store interface. Oh yeah, and Apple could control supply of super-popular songs to prop up its eBay side in a sort of DeBeer's-ish artificial price inflation mechanism. What? Little Miss Jailbait's latest hot-hot-hot single is burning up the charts? Too bad, only 100 people can buy the song directly. I guess this would be a good time for one of those trez-fashionable Slashdot "1)X 2)Y 3)?? 4)Profit!" sort of lines.
    • Topps is actually doing this kind of scheme with baseball cards through a program they call eTopps [etopps.com].

      When you buy an eTopps card, you get an actual baseball card. However, unless you ask for it they never send the card to you, it's locked up in a secret vault where Topps maintains it in pristine condition. As long as you let your card stay in the vault, you can sell it on a special section of eBay.

      New cards come out in "Intial Player Offerings" or "IPO"s where the cards are offered for direct purchase, but
    • Can I mod this as strangely insightful but hopelessly naive?

      Seriously, though, I'm sure there's something buried in the fine print that says you can't resell iTunes songs. Remember, the product comes from the same recording industry that wanted to ban the sale of previously owned CDs so that you had to pay full price for a new one (which, if they'd been successful in banning sales of used CDs, would have suffered 100% depreciation the instant you bought it).

  • Some Restrictions Apply (Score:2, Interesting)

    by o'davy ( 606052 )
    Article sez:

    Also, Apple said, the first 500,000 customers to open a new iTunes account in the United States using PayPal as their form of payment before March 31 will receive five free songs. Apple said some restrictions did apply to that offer and referred questions to the PayPal.com Website for information.

    Dang. So I have to open a new iTunes account, and I am referred to PayPal for the details (probably need a credit card).

    They Might Be Giants [theymightbegiants.com] sell songs for $0.99US, too, and the $$ goes directly to

  • Paypal is giving away 5 free iTMS songs (Score:4, Informative)

    by da_anarchist ( 548175 ) on Sunday December 12, 2004 @10:58PM (#11070012)
    If you don't have an iTMS account yet, Paypal will give you 5 songs when you create a new iTMS account and link it with a Paypal account. Only for the first 500,000 people, but the promotion just started days ago so should be good for a while. I signed up Friday and got my 5 songs without any problem. Here's the link to the details on Paypal's website: 5 free iTMS songs [paypal.com]

  • How? (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Cisco Kid ( 31490 ) * on Sunday December 12, 2004 @11:16PM (#11070081)
    Ok, so I went to itunes.com, and poked around, and found all sorts of info on how great it was, and how easy, yet nowhere can I find a link to actually select music to check out with for download.

  • /. behind the times (Score:2, Insightful)

    by fearx ( 19408 )
    Does anyone else notice how /. is getting behind the times? This news is 2 days old at best.

  • The Online Currency? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ethzer0 ( 603146 )
    It would be really neat to see where paypal could take a currency system. For now, many online stores prices are posted in the local currency in use, whether it be American or Canadian Dollar, the Euro, etc. If any form of online trading becomes universal and widely adopted, prices could be posted in paypal dollars; call them Paydols (I dunno... work with me). If prices were posted in Paydols it might transition to the physical world---you could pay for goods at a store with X amount of Paydols instead. If
    • At one time it could have happened, but PayPal has long since squandered that opportunity.

      PayPal's TOS/AUP outlines numerous exceptions / limitations of their service, such as:

      Academic Software, Aggregators, Alcohol, Animal and Wildlife Products, Artifacts, Grave-Related, and Native American Crafts, Authenticity Disclaimers, Autographed Items, Automobiles Batteries, Bootleg Recordings, Contracts and Tickets, Counterfeit Currency and Stamps, Counterfeit Items, Credit Cards, Drug and Drug Paraphernalia, Ele
      • Ooh, you could have fun with that list.

        Precious metals 200 credits
        Plants and Seeds 4 credits
        Human Parts and Remains 22 credits
        Weapons and Knives 168 credits
        Medical Devices 592 credits

        Coming out of hyperspace and being shot to smithereens - priceless

  • Why bother with iTunes.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday December 13, 2004 @12:45AM (#11070346)
    when their's Ebay? I'm serious. I just bought 30 CDs for ~$100 dollars (expensive japanese CDs no less). At 10 songs average (give or take) that's ~300 songs or ~.33 cents a song. Beats the hell out of iTunes. Yeah, you can't get everything one ebay, but you can't get everything on iTunes either. And I've got liner art, lyrics, and high quality pressed CDs that aren't nearly as susceptible to bit rot.

    I guess it's nice getting _exactly_ the song you want, but still, I just don't get the appeal of iTunes. Unless the content providers start craming it down our throats by phasing out CDs (yeah, they probably will), I can't see it as being more than a passing fad after the novelty wears off.
    • I am not an itunes user, but I can see its appeal:

      1. INSTANT gratification. You want it now, you've got it now.
      2. Granularity. You paid 100$, but what if you only wanted those CDs for 40 total songs? In your example, you're buying what I'd call "specialty" CDs and don't follow the traditional model. Most people want a CD for 1-3 songs, which raises your price to about a buck a song, if not more (for the average person buying 30 cds for 100$)
      3. Preview. Could you LEGALLY listen to clips of songs off of
    • EBay's advantages: cheaper, no DRM, physical media

      iTunes advantages: instant gratification, a la carte shopping

      And don't dismiss those advantages. I buy the song, I listen to the song. No waiting for the CD to arrive. And suppose I only like 3 songs on an album - then the cost difference is negligible.

      And I expect there's an addictive quality to iTunes. You listen to a song, you click, its yours. Then you see the songs other people liked, and you listen to them, click: you've bought another.

    • I needed a specific song for a party mix one night. I logged on to iTunes and downloaded it in less than a minute; the process was quick and painless, and by using Hymn I later removed the DRM.

      There are times when iTMS is very, very helpful. That isn't to say I don't buy CDs, because I do, but sometimes speed is an issue. Also, if I only want one song, buying an entire CD is wasteful.

    • Are you sure that they're not pirated copies? In my experience, most Japanese albums being sold on eBay are actually Taiwanese knockoffs, and the price you give there seems suspicious for expensive Japanese albums.

      Check the label; if it's Son-May (SM), Ever Anime, Smile Face, Xu Shing or Ho Son it's definately pirated. Those are the most common piraters, and you can find their knockoffs everywhere. Naturally, the artist didn't get a penny; so if your 30 CDs for 100$ were pirates, then it's no wonder it was

      • Naturally, the artist didn't get a penny; so if your 30 CDs for 100$ were pirates, then it's no wonder it was cheaper than iTunes.

        So much of that $0.66 per track difference would have gone to the artists!

    • "I guess it's nice getting _exactly_ the song you want, but still, I just don't get the appeal of iTunes."

      OK. The appeal of iTunes is "getting _exactly_ the song you want."

      I can browse, click "Buy Song," download, and sync to my iPod before you can grab the car keys and get in the car. I'll be listening to the songs I wanted at US$0.99 each long before you will drive to the store and buy them at somewhere around $16 for an average of three songs you want per CD. At that average you just paid $100 for

  • PayPal rocks. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rice_burners_suck ( 243660 ) on Monday December 13, 2004 @01:42AM (#11070524)
    It's about cottonpickin' time that other sites besides eBay begin integrating with PayPal. I mean, seriously, how the devil is PayPal to be taken seriously if it's an eBay-only technology?

  • oooh neato (Score:2, Funny)

    by iamweezman ( 648494 )
    Hey this is such great news! Can you also let us know about every new song they put up too. Every little bit of iTunes news is just so enthralling!

  • A thought: (Score:3, Interesting)

    by NeuroManson ( 214835 ) on Monday December 13, 2004 @03:18AM (#11070738) Homepage
    As someone who draws erotic cartoons for a living, I learned early on about how Paypal refuses to perform any payment transactions involving adult material (in fact, they'll fine sellers $500 for adult material).

    So how does that differ from iTunes, where any variety of "Parental Advisory" labeled music can be dowloaded?
    • All you need is a big, well funded industry body behind you. Of course, they'll take 90% of your profit, but at least you'll have artistic freedom so long as you do what they tell you to do.
  • that is awesome. I personally prefer to use paypal on the internet if possible. It keeps everything nice and separate from my other bank / credit cards.

  • Dear Paypal User (Score:3, Funny)

    by mrshowtime ( 562809 ) on Monday December 13, 2004 @04:30AM (#11070893)
    What is going to be funny is when Apple gets the standard Paypal "HA,HA, we just suspended your account and hijacked your money for six months." -form letter that paypal seems to send to just about everyone these days.

    "Dear Paypal user APPLEITUNES INC.

    We have noticed some unusual activity regarding your paypal account. For your saftey, we have limited your account access. To restore access, please complete checklist below and your account will be reviewed in 7-30 business days, when we will simply ask you for more extremely personal info, even though we have already made the decision to limit your account access indefinately, even though you have done nothing wrong.

    Please complete the following steps to restore access:

    1. Provide proof of inventory and invoices for all 1.2 million songs you provide.

    2. Provide the names and phone numbers of all companies that provide you with your 'inventory'

    3. Provide us with your Social Security number.

    4. Provide us with copies of your utility bills at 101 Apple Ln.

    5. Provide us with copies of your bank statements for the past year.

    6. Change your password and password hints

    7. Confirm your credit card

    8. Confirm your bank account

    Once this checklist is complete, we will still ask you for the same info over and over again, with no valid reason, and we will hold all funds in your paypal account for 180 days and then release them to you.

    Thanks for choosing Paypal
    Sincerely
    Mark
    Paypal "Investigations"

  • PayPal are evil! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by NaveWeiss ( 567082 ) on Monday December 13, 2004 @04:34AM (#11070906) Homepage Journal
    While I like very much the concept of PayPal - which allows me to quickly send money without revealing my CC number, they do behave like nasty monopolists and terminate accounts without telling the reason why.

    Look what they did to Clay [livejournal.com], the artist of Sexy Losers [sexylosers.com] - they terminated his account just like that, without explaining anything besides claiming he violated their TOS.. and they did that to many other people.

    • Re:PayPal are evil! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Threni ( 635302 )
      How do you know that the people complaining about PayPal don't have an axe to grind for some reason they're not telling you about? Banks get accused of doing bad stuff too but...so what? As long as they stick to the contract then there's no problem. I don't do other people's boycotting for them.
  • Slashdot reported on a October 11 about some server problems caused by a software update [slashdot.org]. The problem lasted for several days and cause a lot of grief to people on eBay who depended on PayPal as their primary source of income. When PayPal resolved their problems, they offered to refund some money for lost income, but it wasn't enough to smooth over hard feelings created from the incident. Luckily, Apple doesn't depend on PayPal as it's sole means of payment. Those that do should look into secondary pay

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