The press is filled with complaints from major labels like Universal about how difficult it is these days for them to sell music.  So you’d think that given their troubles, they’d want to make it extremely easy for willing customers to purchase songs and albums from their artists.  And yet Universal Music made it impossible for me to pay for a song from one of their German artists when I tried to.

A German musician I am friendly with, knowing my taste in music, linked me to a YouTube video for a remixed song he thought I’d really like.  The song is called “Eisblumen,” by German artist Eisblume.  The song was written by German folk/goth-metal band Subway for Sally in 2005, covered by Eisblume in 2008, and then remixed by Derek Von Krogh.  I like the original, the cover, but I think the remix is truly excellent:

I loved the remix so much, I wanted to buy it.  So my first port of call was the iTunes Music Store.  Being signed to Universal Music, I figured this would be an easy song to find there.  Well…I was wrong.  The song is not in the US iTunes Music store (perhaps ironically Subway to Sally’s original version of Eisblumen which is on German indie metal label Nuclear Blast is available in the US iTunes Store…)  I switch to the Deutschland iTunes Music Store, but it won’t let me purchase the song from my US iTunes account.

Next stop, Amazon.com.  I look for the physical CD of the Eisblumen EP, but it’s import only, and not available anyway.  (Besides, importing a physical disc to the USA because I like a single song is really cost prohibative).  So I then try the Amazon.com MP3 download store, and like the US iTunes, they don’t have it.  Now as luck would have it, the day I happened to be looking for Eisenblume Remix is the same day Amazon announced that there was a brand spanking new MP3 downloads store available in Germany.  Perfect!  So I head over to amazon.de, head to the downloads store, and click to buy the song…once again, no luck.  I can barely read the German-language message it throws me, but clearly I’m in the wrong geographic location.

At this point, I ask an Austrian friend who has some similar taste in music if he woud mind buying it for me.  Since there is no Amazon store in Austria, I assumed that they’d sell him the MP3…once again, apparently Austria doesn’t count either for Amazon.de downloads, and he couldn’t buy it either!

The story gets even zanier.  The German musician above decided to buy me the Eisblumen EP via iTunes.  I received an email telling me that the gift was waiting for me, so I changed my iTunes store once again to Deutschland, clicked the link, only to be told that not only would they not sell to an American iTunes account, I couldn’t even redeem a gift card!

It would be easy to place the blame at Apple and Amazon’s feet (and yes, the gift card thing is pretty screwy if you ask me), but I’m guessing that the retailer’s hands are tied.  I’m guessing they have to keep the stores separate various local taxes and national regulations, and other things I probably don’t realize.  I’m sure they’re doing what they’re told.

Ultimately, the blame lies squarely with Universal Music.  It is easily within their power to put all of their artists on every iTunes/Amazon MP3 download store. Digital media is not like physical media, where there are warehouse and shipping costs.  Sure, the Universal Music marketing machine isn’t trying to sell Eisblume in the USA but so what?  It does’t reduce shelf space for other Universal artists if Eisblume’s digital files can be purchased in every country in the world, and they might actually sell a few.   It doesn’t cost Universal Music anything extra.  Obviously, Universal does put some German language music in the US iTunes store (Rammstein, for example).  Ember After’s album Grasping At Straws is available for download from every iTunes store in the world, and it didn’t cost an extra dime or take any extra effort.  What could possibly be Universal’s incentive to not allow paid downloads in every possible store?  Is Universal afraid that Eisblume might sell a record or two outside Germany?

In my case, I have German friends and a fair amount of FTP space, because the end result is that the German musician who purchased the EP for me was able to download and send it to me.  So in the end, I’ve got the music, and Universal got paid.

I can’t help but wonder how many people outside Germany find music they like by German artists, want to buy the digital download legally, but are thwarted by Universal’s insistance on treating digital downloads with the same regional restrictions as physical media. I’m sure Universal Music would be the first to scream and wave their corporate fist in the air at anyone who didn’t legally pay for the song…but what other options do they give a music fan without an international network?  If Universal wants to complain about how difficult it is to sell music these days, why don’t they at least take advantage of the opportunities they have.