Apple enthusiasts in China will soon get treated with the company's new content services: iTunes Movies, Apple Music and iBooks.
The company announced on Wednesday, Sept. 30, that it is making its content services available to users in China.
“Customers in China love the App Store and have made it our largest market in the world for app downloads,” said Eddy Cue, the senior vice president of Internet Software and Services of Apple. “One of the top requests has been more great content and we’re thrilled to bring music, movies and books to China, curated by a local team of experts.”
The company claims that its new content services will boast a variety of international and Chinese releases from record labels, film studios, as well as local publishers.
Apple Music in China will feature local artists, including G.E.M., JJ Lin, Li Ronghao, Eason Chan and more. It will likewise offer the songs of international artists, such as Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, among others.
Apple Music users in China will get a free service trial for three months. After that, subscribers will pay 10 yuan, or about $1.57, on a monthly basis. iTunes movies will start from 5 yuan, or $0.79, for HD rentals and 18 yuan, or $2.83, for HD purchases. Meanwhile, paid iBook will start from 0.5 yuan, equivalent to 8 cents.
Interestingly, the company is throwing in a free download of the recent hit film in the country, The Taking of Tiger Mountain. The Twilight books will also be made available in digital format alongside other Chinese language on iBooks.
In the meantime, an analyst believes that the music streaming service may be a tough sell in the country, given differences in tastes as well as language barriers.
"China is more of a difficult market to penetrate, especially for global companies. China tends to prefer local companies," said consumer electronics analyst Karissa Chua of Euromonitor International.
However, Chua pointed out that the ideal strategy is to launch Apple Music in both iOS and Android devices, considering Android smartphones are more famous in the country.
The cloud-based streaming service will land on Android devices this coming fall, according to Apple.
