iTunes off to a good start in Europe

The iTunes Music Store appears to be popular with European music fans.

After one week, the store has sold more than 800,000 downloads in the UK, France and Germany. The UK accounts for 450,000 of those downloads - a number that's 16 times higher than competitor OD2, according to a statement from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Users are apparently taking to the a la carte pricing and integration with the popular iPod music player. In the UK, tracks are sold for 79p each and albums for about £7.99. In France and Germany tracks cost €0.99 and most albums go for €9.99.

Top-selling artists in the store's first week include the Pixies, Alicia Keyes, Anastacia and Herbert Gronemeyer. The Pixies released their first new song in 13 years exclusively via iTunes.

Songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store can be played on up to five computers, burnt onto CDs an unlimited amount of times and listened to on an unlimited number of iPods. Playlists can be burnt onto CDs up to seven times.