Apple iTunes Europe reaches 50 million downloads

24 June 2005 22:30 GMT / By Kenneth Henry

For a website set up only a year ago, it was only a matter of time before iTunes outside of America would reach a significant milestone, but 50million legally downloaded bought and paid for tunes is definitely worth shouting about for Apple, which has spread its online stores across 14 other countries after the launch in the UK, France and Germany.

Once agreement was eventually reached, 1000 indie music labels joined the portal's worldwide major music companies in offering a million tracks for download. All this has happened despite rows over Ripoff Britain - the Office of Fair Trading is still investigating the fact that UK iTunes users are paying the highest price of 79p of the launch countries and of course (as usual) a lot more than America or Canada. (See here for the original story).

Still, in a week when Legal Downloads threatened to become almost as large as the illegal type, Apple knows it'll be the generally top destination for people wanting to charge up their iPod, so it can't be as if UK users are shunning the site in disgust. For Apple, the only way sales can go is up in an age when a ringtone based single can keep a stranglehold on the UK charts for almost a month.

Full tags

Software, Mac software, Music software, Apple