It's a long and glorious tradition: when you can't match a competitor's reputation or market dominance, undercut their prices to get attention. British retailer HMV didn't wait long to try that tactic. On its second day of operation of its online music store, HMV announced a vicious undercutting of Apple's British prices, lowering its single-track download cost to 39 British pence, which is about 70 cents in US dollars—half of the iTMS price for a track. No word on lowering the cost of albums (over $14 USD) or the subscription price for monthly access (currently about $27 USD). This report quotes an HMV spokesperson warning, oddly, that back-catalog tunes might not enjoy the same price reduction. You'd think the oldies would always be reduced.
