by , 12:40 PM EDT, October 26th, 2004
Nine European Union countries now have access to buy and download music from Apple's iTunes Music Store, Apple announced Tuesday. iTunes users in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain can now buy digital cuts for �0.99 per song.
The nine EU countries join iTMS users in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany.
�We�re excited to bring the iTunes Music Store to even more music fans across Europe, and with this expansion we now reach customers in almost 70 percent of the global music market,� said Eddy Cue, Apple�s Vice President of Applications.
The company also said it will launch the iTMS in Canada in November.
Apple announced August 10 that the iTMS now had over one million songs available for download in the US and music from all five major record labels and over 600 leading independent labels from around the world. The company has refused to say exactly how many downloads are available in the 12 other markets.
When Apple launched the ITMS in Europe back in June, 800,000 songs were purchased in the first week, the company said, with more than 450,000 sold in the UK alone.
| iTunes Music Store Key Dates | |
|---|---|
| April 28, 2003 | Apple Launches iTunes Music Store |
| May 6, 2003 | One million songs sold on iTMS |
| May 14, 2003 | Two million songs sold on iTMS |
| June 23, 2003 | Five million songs sold on iTMS |
| September 8, 2003 | Ten million songs sold on iTMS |
| October 16, 2003 | Apple & Pepsi launch giveaway of 100 million free songs |
| October 20, 2003 | One million copies of iTunes for Windows downloaded in less than four days |
| November 6, 2003 | 1.5 million songs sold on iTMS in one week |
| December 15, 2003 | 25 million songs sold on iTMS |
| March 15, 2004 | 50 million songs sold on iTMS |
| April 28, 2004 | Over 70 million songs sold on iTMS |
| May 5, 2004 | 3.3 million songs sold on iTMS in one week |
| June 15, 2004 | Apple launches iTMS in UK, France & Germany |
| June 23, 2004 | iTMS in Europe sells 800,000 songs in first week |
| July 12, 2004 | 100 million songs sold on iTMS |
| August 10, 2004 | iTMS catalog tops one million songs |
| October 14, 2004 | 150 million songs sold on iTMS |
| October 26, 2004 | Apple launches iTMS in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain |