Reuters reports that Apple seems ready to launch the iTunes music store (iTMS) in Europe next Tuesday. The company has issued invites for a press conference that day in London, hinting only that "the biggest story in music is about to get even bigger".
It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens to iTunes on this side of the pond. While it pretty much had the US market to itself when it launched, over here there is substantially more competition – partly because it's taken so long for iTMS to cross the Atlantic.
The Reuters piece over-states the threat posed by the OD2 services that are, IMHO, no match for iTMS because of their limited catalogues and often cruddy user interfaces. More of a threat is the superb Napster service, which offers a better choice of downloads than the OD2 services and - here's the clincher - a subscription model for desk jockeys looking for a soundtrack while they work, plus a bunch of unique playlist-sharing functions.
Unless Apple does something radical, iTMS won't offer that when it arrives here. Will its incredibly strong brand - an exclusive compatibility with the iPod - be enough to make it top dog?
