Staggered release dates  #
Thursday, 20 Aug 2009 03:02PM
An album just came out that includes a track I want to buy. I only want the one track so I headed over to iTunes to buy it.

The album isn't there? What? But the entire internet is filled with "the album has been released" notices!

The album is released... in Europe. It's available on European iTunes. The CD doesn't come out in Australia until the second week of September. I presume that is why it isn't on Australian iTunes.

Why?

What purpose do staggered release dates have in today's world? Why do they want to delay the release of the track on iTunes to coincide with the physical CD release date? What purpose does it serve other than to annoy Australians?