Apple has launched the iTunes Music Store in Canada, giving music fans in Canada the same features and pricing that have made iTunes the number one online music service in the world.

“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.”

The iTunes Music Store in Canada features over 700,000 songs and dozens of exclusive tracks from a wide variety of leading worldwide artists, including songs from Alanis Morissette, The Tragically Hip, Sarah McLachlan, Auf Der Maur, Delerium, Black Eyed Peas, Chingy, Toby Keith, Diana Krall and 3 Doors Down. “Push” from Sarah McLachlan and “The Love Song” from K-Os are also featured as exclusive videos.

With the same personal use rights as in the US and Europe, the iTunes Music Store in Canada gives users the ability to play songs on up to five personal computers, burn a single song onto CDs an unlimited number of times, burn the same playlist up to seven times and listen to their music on an unlimited number of iPods. The iTunes Music Store in Canada offers PC and Mac users the same innovative features including:

• “iMix,” an innovative way for users to publish playlists of their favorite songs on the iTunes Music Store for other users to preview, rate and purchase. iMix creates a virtual iTunes community, enabling users to discover new music recommended by fellow music fans, rate iMixes published by other iTunes users and share iMix previews with friends;
• “Party Shuffle,” a dynamic playlist that automatically shuffles songs from a user’s music library, displays just-played and upcoming songs, and allows users to easily add, delete and rearrange upcoming songs on the fly. Party Shuffle is the ultimate DJ at any gathering and a great way for users to get reacquainted with their personal music library;
• Gift certificates from iTunes, allowing users to buy gift certificates to send via post or electronically; and now customers can buy and print color gift certificates right from their computer for the perfect last minute gift;
• More than 9,000 audiobooks which can be purchased with one click and listened to on any PC or Mac computer as well as on iPods. iTunes is the only digital music jukebox that allows users to seamlessly purchase audiobooks in the same easy way that they purchase music;
• “Artist Alerts,” an email alert notifying users when music from one of their favorite artists has been added to iTunes;
• The ability to create and print stunning CD jewel case inserts for albums or compilation discs, combining album art and track lists using professionally designed templates. For compilation CDs, iTunes will automatically generate a mosaic of album covers based on the chosen songs; and
• Automatic WMA to AAC conversion, enabling Windows users to automatically create iTunes versions of their songs encoded in unprotected WMA. Converting an entire music library into iTunes and syncing it onto iPod is now a snap.

Pricing & Availability

iTunes for Mac and Windows includes the Canadian iTunes Music Store and is available as a free download immediately from http://www.itunes.com. The iTunes Music Store in Canada works with the Canadian dollar, and purchase and download of songs requires a valid credit card with a billing address in Canada. Further information about iTunes or iPod can be found at http://www.apple.com.