Vivendi’s Universal Music today slashed the prices it charges for online music downloads in Europe by 30 per cent in an effort to take on internet pirates and the might of market leader Apple.
The move, which will cover 1,500 “mid-price” albums, aims to lure consumers away from “free” illegal downloaded services offering pirated tracks. Downloads of bootlegged music still outpace legitimate sales by a margin of 40-to-1, according to some industry estimates.
Universal, which claims more than a quarter of the global music market, said the move, which takes force in the UK from today, was part of an “aggressive European strategy to permanently reduce digital download prices”.
The group has already given its backing to SpiralFrog, an American download site that offer tracks