Amazon slashes music download prices

Amazon has reduced the price of many of its bestselling music download singles.

The online shop is now selling more than 100 tracks, including recent hits from Lady GaGa, the Prodigy and Lily Allen, for 29p instead of the 59p it previously charged.

It has also said it will sell selected pop, rock, classical, jazz and hip-hop albums for as little as £3.

Julian Monaghan, head of music buying at Amazon, said the reductions were being made indefinitely.

"Since our launch, just four months ago, we have been presenting our customers with some great deals on MP3s while rapidly expanding our catalogue and we will continue to do so," he said.

Meanwhile Apple is expected to raise the prices of some of its bestselling download singles from 79p to 99p. However, some back catalogue tracks will be reduced to 59p.

Apple would not say exactly when these changes would come into effect, but a representative told us it would be "sometime in April".

Analysts have said that despite these changes, people may still stick to iTunes.

Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forester Research, said: "Amazon has introduced the retailing mentality to music downloading, something that other companies have failed to do.

"However, some iPod users will continue to choose to use iTunes because it is easy to connect their devices to.

"The music download pricing war started a long time ago but today sees a new way of music pricing."