The American product giant has already announced the iPhone 5 will be made available to South Africans, and the arrival of the iTunes store signals its increasing interest in a market it is currently only a bit-part player in.
In total 52 countries, including Russia, India and Turkey, gained access to the online store, but consumers will have to wait for eBooks, television and film services.
The Apple statement said: “The iTunes Store features local artists including Elka in Russia, Sezen Aksu in Turkey, AR Rahman in India and Zahara in South Africa.
“Customers can choose from over 20 million songs available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store.”
The cost for a single track is between R6.99 (US$0.80) and R8.99 (US$1) while full album prices vary.
The music on offer through the iTunes store comes in Apple’s digital rights management-free format, iTunes Plus with high quality 256kbit/s Advanced Audio Coding (AAC).
Users are also able to make use of iTunes in the Cloud, which means users are able to download their purchased iTunes content to their iOS devices, such as iPhones, free of charge.
“In addition, music not purchased from the iTunes Store can gain the same benefits by using iTunes Match, a service that stores your entire music library in the new countries added today,” says Apple.
