UK iTunes prices to come down
Pricing of tracks on iTunes is to be standardised throughout Europe within the next six months, Apple has announced.
In addition, record labels in the UK that don’t comply with Apple’s demand to lower prices face being thrown out of the iTunes store.
Apple warned that it would “reconsider its continuing relationship with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level within six months.”
At the moment, UK consumers pay 79p per track from iTunes, whereas surfers in continental Europe pay the equivalent of 64p.
“This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music. We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive.
The move was welcomed by Which?, formerly known as the Consumer Association, who first complained about the pricing of tracks on iTunes back in 2004.
Which? lawyer Chris Warner said: “We hope other internet companies – including online music companies - will follow Apple’s lead and match UK prices to prices in continental Europe.”
Which? also said that it hoped Apple would go one step further and lift restrictions that prevent UK surfers buying music from iTunes stores from other nations.
But analyst Jonathan Arber from Ovum said that Apple could be alienating itself.
“This is likely to further damage Apple’s already fractious relationship with the major labels, many of whom now seem to be moving rapidly towards DRM-free options, with freeing themselves from iTunes dominance as a key motivation,” he said.