Play.com Challenges iTunes With Cheaper UK Downloads February 16, 2008
Read more Apple , Digital Audio , Entertainment , Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , MP3 , Music , iPod
One of the bigger etailers out there, Play.com, has decided to take on Apple and others in the UK music download game by offering cheaper downloads.
The company has teamed up with EMI to offer a DRM-free catalogue of around 1 million tracks, with prices starting at a very competitive 65p. The downloads are also high quality 320Kbps versions that will play on any music player.
Play.com has said it plans to stay cheaper than Apple. Apple was recently ordered, by an EU court, to cut the cost of its downloads from 79p to around 74p to bring the UK into line with what other European countries pay.
The top 100 tracks on the new PlayDigital service cost from 65p while Play claimed that it intends to stay £1 cheaper than Apple for albums.
The UK download pool will get a little more vicious later this year when Amazon extends its massive US music service over here. All the better for us.-Martin Lynch
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
Comments
omg, thats where i'm gonna get my tunes from now on!
I'd just like to point out that Apple were not forced to reduce their prices from 79p to 74p by the EU as the story states.
In fact, it was the record companies in the UK insisting that Apple charged a different rate to the UK market to inflate their profit margins. Apple had been wanting to charge a one-off European rate from the beginning but were restricted by EU legislation and the UK record industry.
How about support for a lossless format, such as FLAC (http://flac.sourceforge.net/) rather than mp3 ?