Sneaking into the UK ITMS?

October 18, 2007 2:54 PM

Roisin Murphy has a new album out that I will happily pay money for and would like to hear ASAP. Problem is I'm in the States, and physical import CDs don't appear to have hit here yet. Is there any tricksy way for someone outside of the UK to buy from the UK iTunes store?

I'm well aware that there are a number of torrents already out there, but I'm trying to be good.

posted by Lentrohamsanin to computers & internet (11 comments total)

It depends on how hard apple is trying to enforce region restrictions. I've successfully used an open proxy out of england, to get at UK only tracks from the spiralfrog music service. But they didn't have to verify a billing address, since it was all free. My guess is there are two checks, one on the IP you are coming from, and the other based on the billing address/payment-method.
You can defeat the IP check by googling for a "UK open proxy" and looking for a reliable one out of the UK. --can be found for free, but assume any non-encrypted traffic is fully monitored.
Defeating any billing side checks will probably be harder.
The biggest problem with this method is that you'd have to have a UK itunes account that you used for these songs, seperate from your regular user; if you ever need to relicense the track, you'd have to setup the proxy again.
posted by nomisxid at 3:07 PM on October 18, 2007

I'm a bad searcher. Looks like this was asked and answered (the billing address/payment-method issue that nomisxid mentions being the killer).
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 3:09 PM on October 18, 2007

You could just download the torrent and then get someone in the uk to buy it from iTunes on your behalf. Then iTunes/the artist get the money and you still get the tunes.
posted by missmagenta at 3:17 PM on October 18, 2007

Couldn't you just buy the CD from Amazon UK?
posted by afx237vi at 3:46 PM on October 18, 2007

That or waiting for the import shipments to show up in the US is plan B. I was looking to see if there was a way I could get it immediately, and the UK 's ITMS seems to be the only digital store carrying it.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:39 PM on October 18, 2007

The way I purchase from overseas iTunes without a foreign credit card is to:
- buy an itunes giftcard in the target currency. I buy from here
- Redeem the giftcard
- Create a new itunes account with a (fake) uk mail address. You also need to use a different email address to your existing US itunes account.
posted by cwhitfcd at 8:25 PM on October 18, 2007 [4 favorites]

FYI I live in Australia and have setup US and Japanese iTunes accounts with this method.
posted by cwhitfcd at 8:30 PM on October 18, 2007

Buy the CD from an online UK retailer - Amazon would be fine as someone suggested above.
posted by fire&wings at 2:04 AM on October 19, 2007

And as someone else said above "That or waiting for the import shipments to show up in the US is plan B. I was looking to see if there was a way I could get it immediately, and the UK 's ITMS seems to be the only digital store carrying it."

cwhitfcd's method looks like it might work. I'll try this tonight.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:11 AM on October 19, 2007

Cwhitfcd's method worked great. I also picked up the third series of That Mitchell and Webb Sound. Now to do some DRM strippin' so I don't have to worry about these getting deactivated somewhere down the line just cause I'm a filthy Yankee dog!

(I try to be good, but not that good.)
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:25 PM on October 19, 2007

Oh bonus, the tracks are just plain old m4a.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:06 PM on October 19, 2007