The Nihon Keizai newspaper has reported that Apple is planning on launching its iTunes Music Store in Japan this August, notes Reuters. Additionally, the company intends to undercut the competition by charging approximately 150 yen (US$1.40) per song. According to the report, Sony Music Entertainment has yet to sign on, but labels that have include Avex Group Holdings, Columbia Music Entertainment, and Toshiba-EMI. Motoharu Sone, an analyst from UFJ Tsubasa Securities, feels that mobile phones will be the main method of getting online music in Japan. “In Japan, there has been virtually no market for music downloading via PCs, while mobile phone users spend an estimated $190 million a year to download music via the Internet to their phones,” he said in the story.
