iTunes Japan expected in August, to undercut Sony
updated 07:35 am EDT, Tue June 7, 2005
iTunes coming to Japan
Apple will launch its and will undercut existing players by charging about 150 yen ($1.40) per song, according to the Nihon Keizai. The report says that record companies including Avex Group, Columbia Music Entertainment and Toshiba-EMI will provide songs via iTunes Japan, but that Apple has yet to come to terms with Sony Music Entertainment. However, UFJ Tsubasa Securities analyst Motoharu Sone expects that mobile phones will be music device of choice rather than the PC, according to Reuters: "In Japan, there has been virtually no market for music downloading via PCs, while mobile phone users spend an estimated $190 million a year to download music via the Internet to their phones."
Apple's iTunes service will charge between 100 and 200 yen per song in Japan in an effort to undercut Sony's Mora online download service, which currently chargest 210 yen per song and offers the country's largest digital library of 200,000 songs. The report also said that Apple would also have a bigger library, offering between 500,000 and 1 million songs.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2000
If Only...
It's a pity that the various iTMS-shops of different countries are strictly separated. I really would like to get some tunes from the Japanese shop. (or the American or British shop for that matter)
When will we get a global iTMS? Never? Well, did we ever think we would get an Intel inside? ;-)