iTunes in Germany: Is it the most popular?
Sales reports from Germany's iTMS show that there were 15.5 million songs sold through the service in 2005. T-Online's MusicLoad claimed 15 million song sales as well, but included free downloads in their estimate unlike Apple.
What shocked me more than those fairly close figures is the figure that the iTMS accounts for 80 percent of all legal downloads in the world. Following high tax levies on digital music downloads, devices and blank CD/DVD's in Europe, it's a wonder people don't just pirate everything. A highly contested new tax on media playing devices in Switzerland is set to go into effect on March 1st.
In other German news, I sure hope that Germany will gain some Apple stores this year as rumored. It would be handier for me to be able to step into an Apple Store to drool over all the new releases in person, rather than virtually.
