New Dutch Download Site Gets 500,000 Hits In First 24 Hours

Accosciated Press reports: “Hoping to keep up with Apple’s iTunes digital music downloading service in Europe, a Dutch record company has launched a Web site offering 250,000 tracks from five major record labels. Free Record Shop Holding NV, which traditionally sells music, films and games at retail stores around northwest Europe, put Dutch and French-language Web sites online Tuesday as part of the new Internet service.

The sites got more than 500,000 hits in the first 24 hours, beating previous weekly records for all the company’s sites together, said Olaf Zwijnenburg, who is overseeing the introduction.”