After selling more than 500 million song in the United States and Europe through its iTunes Stores, Apple is entering today, August 4, the Japanese market.

The iTunes Music Store in Japan debuts with local favorites including iTunes Originals from globe and Ulfuls, exclusives from Def Tech, Crazy Ken Band, Chara, Little Creatures, Chie Ayado and The Complete B'z digital box set. Other iTunes exclusives released today include music from international artists such as U2, Jack Johnson and Björk, and over 10,000 audiobooks are available, including works by Japanese authors.

"iTunes and iPod are leading the digital music revolution," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We are thrilled to be bringing the iTunes Music Store to Japan, and hope music fans here love it as much as others around the world do."
The other players on the Japanese digital music market might be severly affected by this entrance, since Apple's prices are lower than the competitors'. iTunes Japan will charge 150 yen each for 90 percent of its songs and 200 yen for the other 10 percent, while Sony's Mora, for instance, charges 210 yen per song.

At least 15 Japanese companies including Avex Group Holdings will provide music for the iTunes store, Apple said. Columbia Music Entertainment said on Thursday it would be one of the firms providing songs.

Sony's digital player market share might also be threatened by this move, many analystst considering that the only reason why the Japanese company was able to secure a market share of 27% for its flash-based players was the absence of iTunes Japan.

Sony will have to cut prices on its players and on the songs sold via Mora if it wants to counteract Apple's "devastating" iTunes, iPod combo.