Apple Computer Inc said on Monday its new iTunes online music store in Japan sold over 1 million songs in its first four days, a strong start for the download service in the world's second-largest music market.
California-based Apple launched iTunes in Japan on Thursday, aiming to win over the country's music lovers with the market's largest library of over 1 million songs and prices that undercut the competition.
Apple has sold more than 500 million songs in 19 countries since it introduced iTunes in the United States over two years ago. The service has also been launched in Britain, France and other major European markets.
Japan, the 20th country, was the quickest to reach 1 million downloads. By doing so, Apple said it had doubled the average monthly total of all current online stores run by other companies in Japan combined.
Until Apple's entry, Japan's undisputed leader in online downloads was Mora, backed by Sony Corp Other services included those run by Yahoo Japan Corp, Excite Japan Co Ltd and Oricon Inc.
"We've known that about (400,000 to 500,000 songs) per month is what all the other online music stores in Japan have been doing. The majority of that being Mora," Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of applications, told Reuters in a phone interview.
"So the fact that we've already done two times that in the first four days is something that we are very, very pleased with."
While iTunes by itself is not a big money maker for Apple, the service has helped drive sales of its iPod portable music players because it offers iPod owners an easy way to download songs, store them on their PC and transfer them to the player.
Apple launched iTunes in Japan with songs from 15 Japanese recording companies including Avex Group Holdings Inc and Columbia Music Entertainment Inc, as well as content from overseas labels.
But Apple still hasn't reached agreements with Japan's largest recording firm, Sony Music Entertainment, Victor Entertainment Inc and Warner Music Japan.
Garnering the support of Sony is seen as key because of its stable of star Japanese artists including Ken Hirai and Puffy.
"In all of our launches, we start off with a certain number of labels and then we aggressively move to expand that and we will certainly continue to do that in Japan," Cue said. "Obviously we are hoping Sony joins the music store soon."
Sony said it was in talks with Apple on supplying iTunes Japan with songs, and Victor said it was considering such a move. Warner Music could not immediately be reached for comment.
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