Those of you looking to save 20% on your iTunes and App Store purchases, head on down to Jean-Coutu Pharmacy between now and May 25. $25 cards are just $20, with a three-card purchase limit per visit. $75 of music/books/apps for $60 is as cheap as you will ever find it at Canadian retail.
Earlier this year, Apple finally reversed its long policy of not allowing iTunes gift cards to be used for app purchases, giving some weak excuse about Canadian tax codes. Whenever I pressed them to explain just what Canadian tax laws prohibited this, they could never give me an answer. Lame, I know.
Since the new policy, I’ve always been on the lookout for deals on iTunes gift cards. Thanks to a post from the awesome community at redflagdeals.com, I found one today. Until October 24th, you can get $60 worth of iTunes gift cards for just $48. That’s 20% off, turning your 99-cent apps into 80-cent apps.
Stock up this week. If you don’t have a Costco membership, ask a friend who does to buy you a cheap Costco gift card. The wholesaler allows anyone with a Costco gift card to shop at the store as if they had a membership, and will accept cash, debit or AMEX for your purchases. So even if you only have a $10 gift card, they’ll let you buy a $1,000 HDTV.
Either Apple is really getting into the variable pricing swing of things, or someone made a big booboo on the Canadian iTunes store today… The world’s biggest music seller is currently selling the “111 Years of Deutsche Grammophon” classical music collection for just $9.99, a huge discount from the normal price of $119.99. The 55 album collection includes 730 songs, meaning you’re paying 1.4 cents a song, give or take. And since I still haven’t found a single 69-cent song Apple promised us in April, I think it’s about time we get a deal at the iTunes store.
I’ve always said songs on iTunes, Amazon, or any other download service should cost pennies, not dollars. It would kill a significant chunk of Canadian music piracy overnight. I know this because I just purchased 730 classical songs, and I would have never even bought one of them at 99 cents. Think I’m crazy? Well, think again. The idea of super-cheap downloads has been floated around before, most notably by McGill University professor and legendary producer Sandy Pearlman.
I’m not the only one taking advantage of this: the collection is currently the No. 1 “album” on the iTunes Canada charts. The price hasn’t been corrected for hours – maybe Apple is testing Pearlman’s theory?
Elias Makos 