The problem isn't "the music industry" the problem is "the music industries".
Each country has its own little equivalents of the RIAA and MPAA.
And that is one of the 'secret sauces' underpinning the success of Apple's iTunes store... because nobody else had the sheer bloodymindedness (or resources) to sit down with and browbeat a hundred different "national music unions" into submission (read as: accepting that digital music wasn't going to go away if they stuck their head in the sand).
On this specific matter, as far as I can tell, (and I'd be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong) Apple hasn't beaten them into submission at all.
If I want to buy music from another country, I need a separate account for that country, and I need either a credit card or an imported iTunes gift card from that country. Using multiple accounts on a single iPod, while now possible, isn't exactly fun, since I have to switch accounts to even get updates for free apps, much less make purchases. All this, of course, wouldn't be an issue if the same music was available in all regions.
Don't get me wrong, I give Apple credit where it's due in getting the RIAA and MPAA on board, but as far as I can tell, they haven't done anything to fight region-based market segmentation - not that anyone else really has.
Region based market segmentation is a whole different problem. How about just being able to sell digital music in Latmonroviastan in the first place? It was a good two years from the opening of the iTunes music store in the US before the iTunes music store in Canada opened - and that's Canada! We're practically the 51st state! Last I checked, none of the really cool music services like rdio or pandora were available outside US territory.
Each country has its own little equivalents of the RIAA and MPAA.
And that is one of the 'secret sauces' underpinning the success of Apple's iTunes store... because nobody else had the sheer bloodymindedness (or resources) to sit down with and browbeat a hundred different "national music unions" into submission (read as: accepting that digital music wasn't going to go away if they stuck their head in the sand).