iTunes going for a song in Europe
By CNN's Manashi Mukherjee
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Apple and AOL have launched a long-awaited iTunes music store online in France, Germany and the UK.
The new service allows users to download songs for 79 pence in the UK ($1.45) and 99 euro cents in France and Germany ($1.20).
Users can choose songs from what Apple boasts is the "largest legal download catalog." It features more than 700,000 tracks from various artists, additional exclusive tracks, more than 5,000 audio books by popular authors, as well as music videos.
iTunes offers a "one-click" download, a 30-second preview of each song, and album cover art to go with each song.
Apple is credited with starting the fight against music piracy by presenting a higher-quality product to consumers, and by offering a non-subscription service where consumers can preview and buy songs online with ease.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: "It is piracy, not overt online music stores, which is our main competitor."
"Illegal downloads can be unreliable, they can be slow, and they can be poor quality. Most of all, it's stealing. iTunes is a better product and it isn't stealing -- it's good karma."
AOL's joint venture with Apple will allow AOL members to have direct access to the music store in France, Germany and the UK, along with special offers exclusive to AOL users, such as free downloads and iPod and iPod mini giveaways.
AOL's European music services already have a following thanks to performances from acts such as the Sugababes and Scissor Sisters in addition to streaming video from festivals such as the Carling Weekend: Reading Festival.
Time Warner is the parent company of both AOL and CNN.
The Associated Press reports that competitors are getting into the game as well.
The night before the highly anticipated AOL/Apple launch, Napster UK Limited, a subsidiary of Roxio Inc., unveiled a new exclusive three-month marketing deal with ntl Inc., the UK's leading broadband distributor.
Napster and ntl will couple their efforts with a new service beginning in July.
Similarly Microsoft Corp. announced an expanded venture with OD2, a leading European online music distributor.
Already available in the UK, France and Germany, MSN is using OD2's "SonicSelector Jukebox" to power their music products. Soon they will be making their online music available to Belgium and Spain as well.
OD2 is offering special promotions and lower prices and a nominal charge to simply stream music via Microsoft plug-in Windows Media Player 9 to compete with iTunes in Europe.
Since its launch in the U.S. last year, iTunes has sold 85 million tracks and commands 70 percent of the legal download market.
Jobs attended iTunes' European launch in London's Old Billingsgate Market on Tuesday featuring guest performer Alicia Keyes.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
