Apple’s iTunes Music Store announced early in May that it has reached 2 million online sales in just over 2 weeks of the service opening. There can now be little doubt that Apple has a very big success story on its hands, and if it carries on selling like it has been, a big revenue drive as well once the service launches around the world and on multiple operating systems.

The idea that users online would switch from downloading music for free wasn’t one that held up very well when first talked about a few months ago, but since the launch of the iTunes music store it has become clear that not only is there a market for it, there is a massive market for it. This is the kind of market that Apple looks like it could thrive in, and with the iPod Apple could well corner to online computer generated music market.

The question right now is how well will the service do when it becomes more widespread and moved into Europe, but the main source of revenue will undoubtedly come from the store allowing Windows users to purchase music. The date for iTunes for Windows is still set for late this year, and the good news for those users is that the store will continue to get better and better in the meantime. The iTunes music store still has a massive lack of independent artists, and our hope is that Apple will be taking care of this far quicker than it seems like they are doing right now.

The worry right now for me is that the store is still U.S only, and the news this week that Apple only just starting talking about a European version of the store is a little troubling. I really did expect that they would have already started the discussions with the major record labels and that they would have made more headway in getting the service out there to the masses.

The complicated structure of the music business is one reason why the store is available in the US only -- the same song can be published by different record companies around the world, the legal issues are nightmarish.

There is little doubt that the future of music retailing is online, if Apple doesn’t continue on with their success, someone else will. There is little doubt that Microsoft are the main rivals here, although the idea of buying anything from an MSN site still makes me shudder.

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