Apple to standardise iTunes prices in Europe

comment: The reason that Apple charges different retail prices in each market is due to the differences in wholesale prices charged in each market by the major labels. Apple could use this as leverage against the labels to lower their prices in all major EU markets

Apple today announced that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its UK iTunes Store to match the already standardised pricing on iTunes across Europe in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Apple currently must pay some record labels more to distribute their music in the UK than it pays them to distribute the same music elsewhere in Europe. Apple will reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level within six months.

source: http://www.apple.com/uk/pr/2008/01/080109_itunespricing.html

UK Digital sales grow by 50% in 2007

The British Phonographic Industry, which represents the British recorded-music business, said total music download sales for the year topped 77 million, a 50 percent increase over 2006.

2.94m online music tracks were downloaded in the UK in the last week of 2007, according to the BPI, a record industry body. The figure is double that for the same time in 2006, when 1.47m tracks were downloaded, and nearly three times that for the same week in 2005, when only 1m songs were downloaded.

Source: http://www.strategyeye.com