If you want to buy a CD in the Arab world – legally, that is – you can’t go online and simply download it. You either have to resort to piracy or hope that the local music shop sells the artist you are looking for. iTunes, the world’s biggest music store, is available in 37 countries across the globe – but it is conspicuously absent in the Middle East, and this, complain Arab artists, is holding back their careers.
According to The National, Music industry experts say the reason there is no regional iTunes Store is that there is not a regional music rights society, which means it would make it almost impossible to ensure that the right people would get paid for their music. And not having a music rights society only increases music piracy in the Middle East.
Read more at The National.
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