Apple’s iTunes Music Store in Europe hits a milestone in sales of legal downloadable songs.
After debuting in the UK, France, and Germany, Apple’s iTunes made its way into 14 other European countries. The results have been nothing short of spectacular since that June 2004 opening day.
“We’re thrilled to have sold and delivered over 50 million songs in our first year,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Applications. “We’d like to thank European music fans for making iTunes such a success.”
The iTunes presence gives users an easy-to-use music management interface and convenient access to Apple’s online music store. Couple with the iconic iPod music player, iTunes has helped propel Apple from a nearly forgotten brand to a profitable technology company, while keeping its cult-like following intact.
Those European stores have catalogs of over 1 million songs each, drawing from small independent labels along with the biggest powerhouses in the music industry.
Since its launch two years ago, the combined iTunes stores in 19 countries have sold over 430 million songs. The stores now reach about 70 percent of the global music market.
The iTunes presence may soon get some new competition from Europe’s favorite operating system maker, Microsoft. Its CEO, Steve Ballmer, has assigned Xbox group head and senior vp Robbie Bach the task of bringing Microsoft up to speed in the digital music arena.
Mr. Bach will really have to think different to succeed here. Apple has taken a page out of Microsoft’s book in keeping the iPod and music from iTunes focused on a single format. On the Microsoft side, the multitude of players that use its technology don’t always work with each available music service consistently.
Extending the PlaysForSure program Microsoft uses to brand players and music programs will probably be the way the company goes in helping hardware manufacturers bring more players using Microsoft technology into the hands of consumers.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.