iTunes Store comes to 12 Asian countries … finally!

• Over 20 million songs available to purchase and download
• Can also rent or purchase movies from all the major studios

APPLE has announced the launch of the iTunes Store in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and nine additional markets in Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Laos, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

The store features local and international music from all the major labels and thousands of independent labels, the company said in a statement posted on its website.

Local artistes include Jay Chou, Girls Generation and Andy Lau, while international artistes include Adele, The Beatles and Jason Mraz as well as classical musicians such as Lang Lang, Yo Yo Ma and Yuja Wang.

Customers can choose from over 20 million songs available to purchase and download on the iTunes Store, Apple said.

They can also rent or purchase movies from the iTunes Store, with many available in high definition, from major studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures.

The iTunes Store joins the App Store which offers more than 650,000 apps to consumers in 155 countries.

Apple said the iTunes Store is the best way for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. All music on the iTunes Store comes in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings.

iTunes 10.6.3 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from apple.com/asia/itunes. iTunes Store purchases require a valid credit card with a billing address in country.