Prevent me from buying MP3′s and Apps just because I live outside the US? I think not!
After some furious Googling, this Australian has successfully purchased content from the US iTunes store. And without a credit card!
The biggest hurdle was getting a US iTunes account (trivial, now I know how).
- Open iTunes and go to the Store.
- Sign out of your “real” account.
- Find any free iPhone application and Buy it.
- When asked to sign in, Create An Account (make sure you select US as country). Tip: if you use Gmail, use username+us@gmail.com as your email address.
- Fill in your fake US address details as generated.
- When asked for a payment method, choose None.
If you just wanted a free app not available in your country, you can stop here.
If you want to buy MP3′s not available in your country, you need some US iTunes credit.
- Find a store that sells online iTunes gift cards, such as OffGamer. Note, you can expect to pay a premium for the online service. Some have reported success with eBay but OffGamer were quite speedy.
- Pay with your PayPal account. If you don’t have one… uh, why not?
- When you get the gift card code (online), simply redeem it in iTunes.
- Purchase your content!
I still have US$12 left in my fake iTunes accounts, which I’m sure will come in handy later. It’s not going anywhere.
Oh, and your US iTunes account can also be used to download iPhone apps that aren’t yet released in Australia, such as the Last.fm app. I can’t believe I didn’t realise this sooner!
Yeah, I did that for a while until my account was suspended because I was redeeming allegedly fraudulent gift cards. A while ago the system for generating codes was cracked so I suspect I was buying codes that were totally bogus. They were stupidly cheap though. A few tips: If the gift card is so cheap that it can’t be legitimate then it will probably still work, though using it will make it more likely that your account will be suspended. You should plan what you want to buy before you redeem the card and then spend all of the credit right away, because if your account is suspended (which you run the risk of in any case) you will lose the balance. So spend that 12 bucks pronto! Finally, if you buy a TV season pass, even if your account is suspended before the season ends you can still get the new episodes each week.
It’s interesting, I felt good about myself because I wasn’t pirating music, movies, etc. But many of my purchases were probably fraudulent, so I wonder if I would have been better off just pirating. In both cases Apple would have gotten no money, but if I had pirated then the guys selling gifts cards wouldn’t have gotten any money either. I guess it comes down to if Apple pay the labels and studios for sales that are later deemed to be made using bogus credit. I would guess that they do, so all is well. I am a legitimate Australian customer now anyway, though I try to buy stuff elsewhere (like from Bleep or directly from the artists) before I resort to iTunes. If only we could access the Amazon MP3 store.
I’m pretty sure my gift card was legit, the website put up a crappy resolution photo of the actual card. I suppose that could still be faked.
Inacessability through legal channels is what drives (some guy who may or may not be me) to piracy. This applies to all TV shows – our local stations are hopeless (that’s being nice). Actually, most of my online music purchases have been quite impulsive, like “OMG! MUST HAVE!”
I will check out Bleep but I suspect it has less coverage than iTunes. Would love for Last.fm to start selling music but they only link to other stores at the moment.