Bureaucracy is delaying the eagerly awaited European launches of online music stores iTunes and Napster.
Licensing contracts, music release dates that differ by country and incompatible billing systems have combined to sidetrack the services, which many recording executives still hope will make their European debut in the first half of 2004.
"We will be here this year. I'm not going to announce the date at this time, but we are working very hard," said Mr Eddy Cue, vice president of applications and Internet services for Apple Computer.
One of the principal architects of Apple's iTunes, told a gathering of music and technology executives that layers of bureacracy in the European music industry were limiting the number of songs it could offer consumers here.
Mr Chris Gorog, CEO of software firm Roxio and owner of online music store Napster, voiced similar grievances. "We're struggling to get the rights clearance to launch a meaningful catalogue in Europe," he said on the sidelines of the annual MidemNet music conference on the French riviera.
Since selling more than 30 million downloads in the US in its first eight months, iTunes has been hailed as a potential saviour for an industry hobbled by the availability of free music on the Internet.
Napster commands one of the best-known brands among downloaders. It relaunched in October in the US after securing licenses from scores of music labels. Mr Gorog said Napster will debut in Europe later this year.
Despite the snags, he expects Napster sales to hit $20 - $40 million globally in its first year of operation.
The emergence of file-sharing networks Kazaa and Grokster has created a pool of 800 million unauthorized music files available for free download at any one time, the music industry estimates.
Download businesses and a campaign to sue the biggest Internet song swappers is being held up as the solution to stemming a prolonged slump in CD sales.
But the industry's decades-old infrastructure may put the comeback on hold.