Amazon MP3 due for UK, elsewhere soon?
updated 09:20 am EDT, Mon June 23, 2008
Amazon MP3 UK Soon
Amazon is in talks to bring its Amazon MP3 music store outside of the US as early as the summer, the British Telegraph newspaper claims. Senior officials from Amazon's online store have purportedly visited British label heads to negotiate details of the launch and hope to introduce a UK version of Amazon MP3 before the final quarter of the year, which starts in October. Details of the launch aren't mentioned but should still include an insistence on the store's namesake unprotected MP3 tracks.
The online retailer has already promised a 2008 international launch and is likely to use the opportunity to expand Amazon MP3 to other countries where the company already has a localized Amazon store, including Canada and Japan.
A British launch is likely to have a greater impact on the UK than in the US and may have a more significant impact on iTunes, which has a smaller share of the digital download market than it does in its home country. Fewer online stores in the UK offer unprotected tracks, with most non-Apple stores choosing instead to offer copy-protected Windows Media songs.
