I still meet people in Malaysia that have just bought an iPhone or iPad and they don’t know what they are missing out on by not having access to a proper iTunes Store, you know a store that sells stuff! Most just think that’s that and don’t realise that there are ways to use iTunes, but first…
I contacted the Apple iTunes Customer support team and ask them why can’t I purchase music from the Malaysian iTunes Store? After giving me a few standard party lines I pressed them and asked, is it Apple or an issue with local record lables. their reply was,
I’m truly sorry I can’t say for sure why the iTunes music store hasn’t reached Malaysia yet. I think it may be a combination of record label availability along with demand issue.
I can say that Apples goal is to have everyone with access to the internet to be able to purchase music, it is a long process but stores are opening all over the world all the time.
Fair enough.
So until Apple open the gates for Malaysian’s to buy from iTunes you are going to be stuck with only being able to play songs you have ripped from your CD’s or, ironically, songs you have downloaded illegally!
Now this really annoys me as I have an iPhone 4, iPad, Apple TV and a MacBook Pro all synced to iTunes and I can’t buy any music and I don’t want to download from torrent sites. Seriously when was the last time you bought a CD? Apple’s latest laptop the MacBook Air doesn’t even have a disk drive, that’s right, you don’t install software or play music from disk anymore everything is downloaded, legally, online these days…except in Malaysia.
Regardless if you’re an Apple fan-boy or if you just have an iPhone/iPad synced to your PC, if you are in Malaysia and want to get the most out of iTunes this is what you need to do.
1) Create a new email address, this will become your secondary Apple ID.
2) Change the iTunes Malaysian store to the US store (click on the Malaysian flag at the bottom of the iTunes home screen)
3) Create an iTunes account without using a credit card.
Here are the instructions from the apple website
Apple doesn’t exactly make it hard to open an account in another country, all you need is an accurate ZIP code to match the city you have on your address. Hmmm what’s the ZIP code of Beverly Hills again??
4) sign in.
Now you have access to the all the content from the US store. There is plenty of free content on there to download including Apps not in the Malaysian store, TV shows, movie trailers and of course songs but if what you want cost $$ then you need to use iTunes Gift Cards.
iTunes Gift Cards work by giving you a redemption code worth the amount of the card and are sold on the Apple US website but they mail the physical card to you (remember that address in Beverly Hills that you’ve never been too?). Never mind there are 3rd parties that you can buy Gift Cards online from that will email you the codes. You’ll need a PayPal account to purchase and you will need to pay a little extra for the service. Google “online US iTunes Gift cards”
How to redeem iTunes Gift Cards
You should know at this point that you are not purchasing direct from Apple and if the third party screws you then you have no leg to stand on complaining to Apple about it, so research who you buy off. Better still have a friend in that country buy it from an Apple Shop for you. If this freaks you out a little then just enjoy the wide section of free content in the US store that you don’t have access to from the Malaysian store.