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Zoom · May 7, 2007, 09:56 AM

I have a buddy of mine who took a 3-year stint in Germany with his company. He's about to buy an iPod for the first time. It's cheaper here, so he's going to buy it here.

However, I know that iTunes Music Store is country-specific. I know the content and pricing are different. But is the DRM actually keyed to the country? That is, if he buys content on the German store, will he have trouble playing it on his US iPod? Or vice versa? Eventually he'll want to bring all that content back to the States. For the next three years, it'll live on his US computer and US iPod in Germany.

Apparently, you need a credit card with a local billing address to access a given country's iTunes store. If he could maintain a US billing address on the CC that backs his account, could he still access the US iTMS in Germany? If so, that seems to be the way to go - then everything would remain US-oriented. He could even get his favorite TV shows.

BTW, I'm assuming that whatever is true for the iPod is also true for AppleTV?

Thanks! I'm going to give this thread URL to my buddy so he can watch the replies.

peeb · May 7, 2007, 11:17 AM

He will have no problems with this. If you have a US credit card, you can use the US store anywhere in the world, likewise with pre-payed cards. There is no region drm.

Zoom · May 7, 2007, 11:46 AM

Good to know.

Just out of curiosity, though, what would happen if he set up a German account, too? The files would play here and there, no problems? I'm just thinking there might be some local content he might want, too.

Actually, there may be a more fundamental issue there... can you have more than one iTunes account associated with a single iPod or Windows PC?

peeb · May 7, 2007, 11:53 AM

The files will play anywhere - the only issue is an attempt to make different content available to different groups at different times. The files are all the same, only the store is different.

Zoom · May 7, 2007, 03:21 PM

Thanks, peeb!

peeb · May 7, 2007, 03:29 PM

You're welcome.

icruise · May 7, 2007, 04:15 PM

You can have content from up to 5 different iTMS accounts on your iPod at one time. I don't think there is any restriction to the number of accounts that a particular computer can use at once. As has been explained above, there is no region coding per se. It's just that in order to download from a particular country's store, you must have a credit card with a billing address in that country (or use pre-paid iTunes gift cards).

OreoCookie · May 7, 2007, 09:40 PM

ghporter points out the one single important point: in order to buy from a specific store, you must have a billing address in the respective country. This was a problem for me already when I lived in Japan and wanted to buy some jpop online. Alas, amazon sells used cds and dvds

icruise · May 7, 2007, 10:07 PM

I think you may have meant me there instead of ghporter. In any case, I'm not entirely sure if this goes against the terms of service for the iTMS, but it is actually possible to buy from the Japanese store using prepaid cards, without having a Japanese credit card. You just need some dummy address to put in so the system will let you purchase.