Why is that "fantastic" considering everyone could get into iTunes roughly on the same terms for years? And various independent music stores too. Where's the innovation?
And there are a lot of countries where neither iTunes or Google Play are available, and maybe aren't going to in observable future.
Because to get on iTunes you have to sign up with apple and jump through all their hoops. Given that, this is actually a big, welcome change. It means that artists can keep all of the proceeds, instead of having to cut a deal with tunecore or any of the other iTunes aggregators.
And there are a lot of countries where neither iTunes or Google Play are available, and maybe aren't going to in observable future.