Yahoo Music Joins iTunes in Japan

Fresh off launching the final version of Yahoo! Music Unlimited in the United States last week, Yahoo on Monday announced it was opening its music service for consumers in Japan. Yahoo will make available 100,000 tracks and allow customers to listen to full songs before buying - the first music store to offer such capability.

Apple's iTunes, meanwhile, has proven a hit in Japan where it sold over 1 million songs in the first four days. Yahoo's quick move to join Apple in the number-two music market could put pressure on the market leader, but iTunes still touts a music library ten times the size of Yahoo's. Napster has also announced intentions to launch a Japanese music store, but not until next spring.