So as far as we've heard, the iTunes Music Store still rules the downloadable music roost here in the States, and its new European counterparts have already grabbed Germany, France, and the UK by the ankles, flipped them upside-down, and shaken over 800,000 songs' worth of pence 'n' pennies from their collective pockets, rocketing way out in front of the market over there, too. Nice. So ignoring for a moment the pan-European store that's supposed to go live in October (apparently there are Europeans who aren't French, German, or British; go figure), what's next for the iTMS juggernaut? After all, it's a big world, and sizable non-U.S., non-European chunks of it are populated with folks who can scrape together enough cash for an iPod and a dozen songs or two.

Folks like our frosty neighbors to the north, the Canadians. Of course, the saga of the iTMS creeping its way up there is a familiar and frustrating one, since it's been eight solid months since the prez of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency announced that "the process of negotiating a licensing deal with Apple is now underway," which most of us figured was a good indication that iTMS Canada would go live by spring. (Then again, most of us also figured that Euro iTMS would go live by last New Year's, which just goes to show that most of us have far more optimism than sense.) The latest on this appeared a few days ago in the Financial Post, which reported that-- oh, this is rich-- Apple is "seriously considering entering the Canadian market." So in eight months we've gone from actively negotiating distribution licenses to "seriously considering" doing a Canadian store in the first place. Why, it's almost enough to make a Canuck want to drink American beer. (Calm down, we said almost.)

The situation's actually not nearly as bad as the Financial Post first makes it sound, though; apparently an EMI bigwig expects an iTMS Canada launch "in the near future," stating that he "saw Steve Jobs [last week] and he is acutely aware the Canadian consumer is knocking on his door." Note to the Canadian politely camped out on Steve's porch and occasionally knocking on his door: here in the U.S. we call that "stalking," but hey, whatever works for you-- and it does seem to be working to some extent, since the aforementioned EMI bigwig says that a Canadian version of the iTMS is "very much on [Steve's] radar now." So now all we need are another Canadian staking out Steve's health club and a third hiding in the trunk of his car, and we oughta be in business.

Meanwhile, the Australians have a little less to celebrate: the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Apple Australia "says, with every sign of regret, that it has no news of iTMS for Oz." No hard facts are given as to why an Australian release apparently isn't even in the planning stages yet; while the Herald supposes that it has something to do with "digital rights management deals and differences in contracts between musicians and labels" (in other words, the same legal hurdles that put Euro iTMS on ice for so long), we suspect it's more a matter of priorities. Australia's a big country, but its music market isn't; the country reportedly spends "about $600 million annually on CDs," while the four existing iTMS-enabled countries spend roughly 32 times that much. But Apple is clearly going for world domination, here, so as sales slowly tip from CDs to downloads and the music industry finally sees that it should simplify licensing issues for stores like the iTMS, we can't believe that Apple would stay out of Australia simply out of spite. (You Aussies didn't spit on Steve or anything, did you?)

Of course, we've still got nothing to answer the real question on everyone's mind: where the heck is iTMS Spratly Islands?