London (Reuters) – Europe’s top digital music service OD2 slashed the price for song downloads in half on Thursday in a bid to steal the PR thunder and woo would-be music customers away from archrival Napster. Later on Thursday, Napster will announce a launch date for Britain, the first territory in its eagerly awaited European expansion plans.
The British-based OD2, which powers nearly three dozen Internet music stores, is the most established European download service. But, it has the most to lose should soon-to-launch rivals Napster and the wildly popular iTunes duplicate their United States success in Europe, industry observers say.
Apple Corp’s iTunes has sold more than 70 million song downloads in its first year of operation in the U.S., but has been tight-lipped on its plans for Europe, saying only that it intends to launch in Europe later. Music executives, meanwhile, are anxious for Napster and iTunes to join OD2, hoping the proliferation of industry-backed download services will derail the momentum of free file-sharing services such as Kazaa and eDonkey and halt the growth of online piracy.
