iTunes Match not coming to UK

iTunes Match is not coming to UK, Music collectors in the US will be able to subscribe to Apple’s iTunes Match service this Autumn, but it looks like we, here in Great Britain, will have to wait a little longer before throwing their collections up into the iCloud. According to sources within the recording industry, licensing negotiations between Apple and the country’s major labels have only just begun and likely won’t be concluded until 2012. A spokesman for the Performing Right Society, an organization that protects the rights of musicians and songwriters, likened the situation to the launch of iTunes, which only spread to international markets some 14 months after launching in the US. Speaking to the Telegraph, Forrester Research vice president Mark Mulligan echoed these predictions, while offering some insight into the industry’s approach:

“Apple’s cloud music service will not launch in the UK until at least quarter one of 2012. These types of negotiations take a long time… For one thing the UK arms of all the major record labels are biding their time and waiting to see how the service affects download sales in the US before they sign up to anything.”

Source: The Telegraph