According to the correspondence, the current store in France (amazonmp3.fr) will expand into a cluster containing France, Belgium and Luxembourg.  In turn, Germany (amazonmp3.de) will become a cluster that contains Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.  The British installation (amazon.co.uk/mp3) will soon encompass all of Great Britain and Ireland.  Digital Music News has not received comment from Amazon offices in Germany or the UK*.

The structure means that an album or song must be cleared in every territory of a specific cluster, or the material will be pulled.  “For a title to be available in the German marketplace it must have offers for Germany, Austria and Switzerland – it’s an all-or-none proposition,” the correspondence outlined.

Other details remain forthcoming, though one independent label chief pointed to a potentially sticky licensing push ahead.  Then again, it really depends on the catalog in question.  “I’m not aware of many situations in which rights are granted to Germany and not Switzerland, for example,” another executive at an independent aggregator relayed.  “The major label side might be quite different.”

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