A screen shot of the iTunes page that provides paid downloading service for an album on Tibet, "Songs for Tibet." [CRI]

A music album advocating "Tibetan independence" recently available for paid download on iTunes has ignited strong indignation among Chinese netizens.

According to Chinanews.com, the angry netizens are rallying together to denounce Apple in offering "Songs for Tibet" for purchase. They have also expressed a wish to ban the album's singers and producers, most notably Sting, John Mayer and Dave Matthews, from entering China.

Many people have made remarks on online forums to express their anger, even those who have been fans of the artists in the past.

Some say they will boycott all Apple products from now on, including the popular iPhone, which is not available in China since negotiations among Apple, China Mobile and China Unicom broke down.

iTunes, an online digital music purchasing application, is by far one of the most widely-used consumer IT applications available on the market.

(CRI August 7, 2008)