AfterDawn: Tech news

Japanese labels skeptical of iTunes

Written by James Delahunty @ 08 Sep 2004 9:21

Japanese labels skeptical of iTunes Apple are planning to open a Japanese version of its iTunes Music Store, but are struggling to find the support they need from Japanese record labels. The labels claim that Apple's FairPlay is "inadequate" and are refusing to license their songs to the service. They also fear that the price of a song may seriously affect their CD sales. Existing Japanese digital music services charge from ¥200 ($1.83) a song, which is considerably higher than $0.99 (¥108) in the U.S.
Current Japanese digital music services also don't support CD burning. Apple insists that consumers should be able to burn CDs from the digital music files that they download. Apple supports CD burning on the US, UK, German and French iTunes stores. However, the prices remain the biggest problem with labels demanding prices do not go below ¥200 ($1.83) a song. "If we go lower than [¥200], CD sales will suffer," a major record label official has commented. He also admitted that the industry needs a price that will compete with low-cost CD rental companies.



Yoshiaki Sakito, Apple Japan's marketing chief, told the Asahi Shimbun the clout of iPod will be sufficient to bring such waverers into line also stating, "The record companies won't be able to swim against the tide forever".

Sources:
The Register
Asahi.com

Previous Next  
Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments
How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller (11 Feb 2023 1:04)
Google shut down its streaming game service Stadia late last month and this means that some people have Stadia controllers lying around that seem to be of no use. That is fortunately not the ....
2 user comments
Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account (26 Jan 2023 2:14)
Sharing a Netflix account with a person in a different location is possible and indeed very common, although the company doesn't necessarily enjoy this behavior from their customers. However, ....

News archive