EuroiTunes: All Systems Go for June 15


Apple will announce its European iTunes Music Store service on June 15, according to a Reuters report.

Apple will host a press conference in London June 15, which Reuters says the company has billed "the biggest story in music is about to get even bigger".

Red tape with record companies - which had initially limited the iTunes experiment to the US - has delayed iTMS' Euro launch. However, Apple's dramatic success with the Music Store, particularly since the launch of the Windows edition of iTunes late last year, has convinced record companies of the benefits of the partnership.

However, given that Euro iTMS will cover so many disparate markets and territories, the contracts for establishing iTMS have proven much more time-consuming.

The timing is important to Apple as well, given that Roxio's Napster has already made its British debut, while Sony's recently-announced Connect service is expected to be in operation in the UK, Germany and France by the end of this month.

However, Apple has the advantage of iPod, a major seller in key European markets.

Analysis: Whether Apple's Euro iTMS will be Europe-wide or merely restricted to a few major markets is another question. Will it be just the UK, France, Germany and Italy? Or Spain, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands as well, for instance? Apple needs these markets, not just to push the growing iPod business, but the Apple brand and the Mac as well. Things are about to get interesting in Europe.