Writing for the Reuters news service, Lucas van Grinsven quotes Apple CEO Steve Jobs as saying that iTunes Music Store will be available for European users in 2004. He also said that iTunes for Windows is on track.
iTunes Music Store debuted for the Mac earlier this year, and has been an eye-opening success for the commercial music industry. The service offers hundreds of thousands of songs for download, with single tracks available for US$0.99 and many albums for $9.99. So far, however, its use has been limited to Mac OS X users who live in the United States.
“We’re clearly working on it (but) I think we’ll do it next year,” van Grinsven quotes Jobs as saying, when asked about the feasibility of a European version of the iTunes Music Store. Jobs said that it’s taking time to sort out distribution rights with music publishers. Several PC-compatible commercial music services have already bowed in Europe since iTunes Music Store made its debut.
“We’re very much on track to execute iTunes for Windows,” said Jobs. When iTunes Music Store launched earlier this year, Jobs told attendees of the special launch event that Apple would launch a Windows version of its vaunted digital music software by the end of the year.