Apple’s iTunes continues to expand its presence overseas, landing a high-profile deal to make iTunes the default music service of Yahoo Japan.
San Francisco — The Japanese website Yahoo Music said Thursday that it had tied up with Apple’s iTunes music store, where more than 4 million songs are on sale to allow iPod users to download songs and other content.
On the heels of Apple’s expansion into social networking, the iTunes deal with Yahoo Japan replaces the default Sony-affiliated music download service and now offers the portal’s 40 million visitors a prominent link to iTunes in the menu bar and one-click access to the download service, according to Macworld UK.
Until Thursday, Yahoo Japan had relied solely on Mora, a download service run by the Sony-affiliated LabelGate, for music downloads.
Owners of Apple’s wildly popular digital music player are now able to search for musicians, tracks and albums on the Yahoo site, which also contains news and reviews, and download music from the iTunes service.
Apple says iTunes has sold more than 2.5 billion songs. Most of the songs available through iTunes cost 150 yen, or about $1.25.
“I’m very happy that, thanks to the cooperation with iTunes, users of Yahoo Japan will be able to access the iTunes store directly,” Yahoo Japan president Masahiro Inoue said.
“We will provide broader content and functions through our services that have attracted many users,” he said in a statement.
However, access to Mora is still available through Yahoo Japan, although users must log in to the site and make it their preferred music store. Mora is a download service run by the Sony-affiliated LabelGate. The iTunes link appears by default.
Tokyo-based Yahoo Japan and Cupertino-based Apple also will team up to offer exclusive recordings.
The alliance is expected to help Apple extend its influence in Japan, a market where the company has been hoping to expand. The deal does not include Yahoo Inc.’s Web site in the United States. Yahoo Japan operates independently, although Sunnyvale-based Yahoo owns a 34 percent stake in the company.
The collaboration between Yahoo and Apple might come as a surprise to some as the two companies’ battle each other in the U.S. market. But the Japanese deal does not necessarily foretell similar alliances in other markets.
The change is likely to be good news for Apple, as Yahoo Japan is far and away the most popular portal site in the country. It reaches about 40 million people, or 84 percent of the country’s Internet users accessing the Web from home each month, according to NetRatings Japan.
Earlier this month, Apple announced that the Warner Music Japan catalog is now available on the iTunes Store in Japan, bringing the total number of tracks offered by Japan’s iTunes store to over 4 million. Apple also said that over 90 percent of the tracks are priced at 150 yen per song.
This week Apple also launched its iTunes Festival in London, which will offer free tickets to 31 consecutive small-venue performances as well as sales of each performance, video/photos and interviews from each performance, and other highlights.
Apple has sold more than 100 million iPods since introducing them in 2001 and the devices command about 75 percent of the global MP3 player market. Apple’s online iTunes store sells digital music, podcasts, video and films.
The commercial success of the nifty player has reached beyond urban hipsters to encompass Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and US President George W. Bush, both of whom reportedly own iPods.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.