Meanwhile, elsewhere on the music front, we've got some good news for the Brits out there (for a change): smile, you may soon be as broke as we all are! Faithful viewer Boesterama forwarded us a BBC News article which reports that "Apple has called a press conference for 15 June, saying 'the biggest story in music is about to get even bigger.'" Gee, and this special event is scheduled to happen at Old Billingsgate Market in London. Let's see, now... Apple... Music... London... What on earth do you suppose that could that be all about?

So, yeah, evidently those rumors of Euro iTMS touching down in mid-June were right after all. MacRumors has kindly posted a scan of the actual press invitation, and if memory serves, it looks an awful lot like the press invites that went out last October, which also featured a nice mosaic of iPod silhouette rumpshakers and a promise that sounds oddly familiar: "The year's biggest music story is about to get even bigger." Considering that that event expanded the iTMS to Windows users, Apple isn't exactly being subtle about the agenda at this London gig, here.

Incidentally, it isn't just the Brits who should be celebrating; remember that Apple was attempting to secure Europe-wide licensing terms from the record labels, so if the iTMS really does launch in the UK Tuesday week, provided Apple didn't cave on its all-Europe plans, localized iTMSes ought to be popping up all over the continent within weeks, days, or seconds. Indeed, a Reuters article pointed out by faithful viewer Ian Evans simply reports that Apple's announcement will be the launch of the "European version of the iTunes online music store," which certainly implies that Apple isn't just starting with the UK first and working its way eastward.

Then again, the same Reuters article also claims that "traditionally when Apple announces a new product or service, it is available straight away." (Try to keep a straight face. Go on, just try. It's fun!) Nevertheless, iTunes events typically do feature immediate availability of any new services, and we won't be at all surprised if Apple's launch includes available-now localized online stores for the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and maybe a few other countries comprising a wide majority of the European market. After all, it has to do something to avoid making this look like nothing more than a "Me Too" gesture; remember, Napster launched in the UK (and only the UK) last month.

Finally, we get to see what happens when the iTMS moves into a market in which it wasn't first out of the gate; we're really sick of hearing that the only reason Apple leads in U.S. legal song downloads is because it had a head start. The Beeb asserts that Apple will encounter "far stiffer competition in Europe than it does in the U.S.," because in addition to Napster UK, Europe also has OD2, which has been running for years and is "currently the UK's most popular online music store." Sony Connect is also set to launch later this month. But frankly, that doesn't sound like all that much competition to us; in the U.S. Apple holds its own against Napster, BuyMusic.com (oops, we mean Buy.com), Sony Connect (we assume), Wal-Mart, and more. So we can hardly wait to see the numbers.

Whatever. A final word of warning to our European friends: you will spend more than you think you will. Our advice is not to fight it; just go with the flow, download all those little gems you find sparkling through Apple's catalog, and turn to a life of crime or something to pay for it. It's all good.