Mystery solved! You know how yesterday we were a little suspicious of Apple's claim that the new European iTunes Music Stores had a catalog of 700,000 songs? Our impression from browsing through the stores' libraries was that the airline must have lost half of Apple's luggage on the flight over, since plenty of artists were listed with no songs available. While we've since heard from a few viewers that the stores' selection of local music was quite good, the overwhelming sentiment expressed among the European AtAT viewership is that there are indeed gaping holes in the Euro iTMS catalog, and they're not just from the missing music from the indie labels who pulled out at the last minute. So here, then, is the question: if there are 700,000 songs available, just where the heck are they?

Answer: a lot of them are precisely where you're not. The Mac Observer got to the bottom of this riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a toasted enigma topped with four kinds of cheese with a pickle on the side, and apparently when Apple said that Euro iTMS had 700,000 songs, it meant collectively. In other words, toss the catalogs from the French, German, and UK stores into a giant blender, hit "liquefy," and you wind up with a lovely 700,000-song smoothie to chug. The problem is that the stores don't share content that way, and between the local music available only to each store and the wacky per-country licensing of internationally-available songs, Apple reportedly confirmed to analysts that each store on its own only has "300,000 to 400,000" songs apiece.

Of course, now the mystery is why that TMO article has seemingly vanished without a trace; you can still see a link to the original piece on yesterday's MacSurfer page, complete with the title "TMO Reports - 700,000 iTMS Cuts in UK? More Like 300-400K, Analysts Told," but the link is dead; we have a feeling that perhaps those analysts weren't supposed to have blabbed what Apple had told them, and the article got yoinked. But it's not a big deal; in any case, most users agree that the Euro iTMS feels a little empty and Needs More Stuff™. And since the missing indie music certainly qualifies as More Stuff™, it's nice that The Mac Observer has another article (which was still available when last we checked) with details about why the indie labels refused to sign.

Reportedly it all comes down to length of commitment: Apple wanted a three-year license at a set fee, which the indies called "commercial suicide" because the whole downloadable music business is so new. The Association of Independent Music notes that the iTMS plays in a "constantly changing market" and that demand could accommodate higher prices down the road, so it was insisting on a "universal price review after six or twelve months." In other words, if things go well, the indies want the right to raise their price to Apple, which would in turn cause song prices at, say, the UK iTMS to jump come January. The indies were also pushing for "an adjustable royalty price that would go up as the retail price goes up"-- so if a given label raises its CD prices, its iTMS tracks would also get more expensive. Apparently "Apple was unwilling to discuss such a clause."

Now, we're all for indie music, folks. In fact, we hardly bought anything at the iTMS until the indies started climbing on board-- just this morning we bought an album by Big Collapse. But don't these demands sound eerily familiar? Isn't this, broadly speaking, the same sort of stuff that the major labels have been angling for, only slightly less evil? We had originally suspected that Apple was throwing its weight around as the top download service and trying to squeeze shockingly unfair deals from the indies, as market-leading corporations are sadly wont to do. But it sounds to us like Apple is mostly concerned with keeping prices at the iTMS low and consistent, something they've fought hard to do here in the States. Remember, the majors have been pushing for pricing based on popularity, with the "hottest songs" rising to as high as $2.49; Apple has so far managed to prevent that from happening, and we, for one, are glad of it.

Then again, there's still the fact that iTunes is the only download service with which the indies haven't yet inked European agreements, which implies that Apple is being somehow less fair. But given that Napster, Sony, OD2, etc. all see themselves as the Davids who have to fell the iTMS Goliath, is it any wonder that they'd ink deals perhaps a little less protective of the consumer buying process just to get their hands on the content? We certainly don't mean to imply that Apple's being an angel in all of this, but we have to respect its apparent goal of keeping prices at a uniform and consumer-friendly level for the next few years-- even though we also respect the indies' desire to keep a tighter control on how much money they get for their music. Here's hoping someone discovers a patch of acceptable middle ground, and soon.

Meanwhile, the battle rages on. But as for you Euro iTMS customers disappointed with the current dearth of cool tunes to buy, don't despair; the U.S. store felt pretty empty when it launched, as well. Remember, we only had 200,000 songs available back then, and no indie content whatsoever; now there's a half a million more songs and buckets more being added every week. Give it a little time. Apple and the indies will reach an agreement, the majors will eventually grant some sort of Europe-wide license, and before too long you'll be going broke at an alarming pace. See? There's always a bright side.