Bizwatch

Upbeat on Downloading
Maybe it's apt that Flying Without Wings, from Irish boy band Westlife, last week became the first No. 1 on Britain's new official download chart: digital music is soaring. Apple says its European iTunes shop has sold 5 million tracks since its June

INDICATORS Paying The Penalty The World Trade Organization approved $150 million in sanctions against the U.S. for not repealing an "antidumping" law that fines non-U.S. firms for selling goods at artificially low prices. Sell-Off Or Sellout? The French government moved toward full privatization of France Télécom, selling 10.85% of the telecom operator and raising €5.1 billion to pay off public debt. Unions, which fear job cuts, threatened protest strikes. Drastic Plastic Credit card users at IKEA's British stores will face a $1.25 surcharge. The retailer says passing on the fees it pays VISA and Mastercard helps keep prices low.

launch. Microsoft jumped in last week with the U.S. debut of MSN Music, which is compatible with a range of players (iTunes files only work on the iPod). Hewlett-Packard has begun selling its own Apple-authorized iPod. And Asia may soon get its first regional digital-music store; Singapore's Soundbuzz, co-founded by a former MTV Asia exec, plans to move into Hong Kong, India and Taiwan by year's end.

Have the music biz's blues turned to blue sky? Many think so. Downloading "will be as big as the cell-phone market," predicts Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Creative, a maker of MP3 players. Forrester Research says Europe's download market could grow from €53 million this year to €3.5 billion by 2009. Still, most services are limited to a few big markets like Britain, where the top 20 tracks tallied just over 100,000 downloads in a week, total. (The No. 1 on the traditional chart, Natasha Bedingfield's These Words, sold 41,000 copies.) "There's not much motivation to expand in a rush," says Sony Music Entertainment's Yasushi Ide, who cites ongoing worries about piracy, especially in Asia . "We'd rather grow the market gradually." Which may be the wisest way to avoid flying without wings — and crashing. — Reported by Yuki Oda/Tokyo and Bryan Walsh/Hong Kong

Made To Be Broken
The E.U. proposed relaxing its stability and growth pact by loosening the rule requiring states to keep budget deficits below 3% of GDP. The changes will benefit chronic overspenders such as France and Germany, though other nations oppose any relaxation.

The Bottom Line
	To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say,'Don't be economic girlie men.'
		ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of California, speaking at the Republican National Convention