iTunes Share of U.S. Music Sales Reaches 25%
According to NPD MusicWatch, when it comes to the unit-sales volume of music sold at retail - including paid digital music downloads and CDs - Apple iTunes leads in the U.S. with 25 percent of music units sold, which is up from 21 percent in 2008 and 14 percent in 2007. Walmart (including Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads) remains in second position with 14 percent of music volume sold at their stores and Web sites with Best Buy ranked third.
The move comes as the music industry continues to see a shift from CDs to digital downloads, with digital downloads now accounting for 35% of total sales, up from 30% in 2008 and 20% in 2007. As the trend continues, NPD sees digital download sales equalling CD sales by the end of 2010.Within the digital download segment, iTunes easily claimed the top spot with 69% of the segment for the first half of 2009, followed by Amazon at 8%. iTunes has led the digital download segment essentially since its inception in 2003.
Apple announced to its employees in April 2008 that it had recently become the #1 overall music retailer in the U.S., and Apple's lead over #2 Walmart has continued to increase since that time.
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Perhaps it hasn't quite reached its saturation point yet... impressive. I think a potential downside is that there's no evidence that the three-tier pricing system (which I hate) is stifling sales.... :(
The 3 tier system was not just a raw price hike. It brought some good things for the consumer like higher bitrate music and the end of PITA style DRM. I still don't buy a lot of digital music though b/c CDs are nearly the same price as a digital album and it come with lossless files and an instant backup.
I'd be willing to pay more than current iTunes prices if Apple offered lossless music and the right to re-download purchased music. I really don't like storing CDs, plus they are kind of a waste at this point since I rip them one and then store them.
I wonder what Limewire's share in the music industry is...
Congrats...you have won the thread hahah.
With the amount of iPods out there (and the amount of ignorant consumers who probably now realize that their music they have been buying over the years will only work on an iPod) this is to be expected.
Kudos for apple for jumping on the digital music front as strongly as they did.
I wonder where it will top out. Could be over 50% in another 5 or 10 years, as long as the iPod platform and iTunes platform remain in top form. They really have to clean up some of the function a little, though, and get über anal with the iTunes program.
The 3 tier system was not just a raw price hike. It brought some good things for the consumer like higher bitrate music and the end of PITA style DRM. I still don't buy a lot of digital music though b/c CDs are nearly the same price as a digital album and it come with lossless files and an instant backup.
I'd be willing to pay more than current iTunes prices if Apple offered lossless music and the right to re-download purchased music. I really don't like storing CDs, plus they are kind of a waste at this point since I rip them one and then store them.
That argument that the improvements were lynch-pinned to the three-tier pricing is a hard one for me to buy fully -- that's more or less what happened with Apple, but Amazon offered 256kbps (albeit MP3) and DRM-free music well before it started offering three-tier pricing. But I do agree with your other points. Re-download particularly (well, I could see it being an expensive offering if Apple gave you lossless files with re-download, but at 256k it's pretty trivial) is something they should have had since inception.
One bad thing that I've noticed about iTunes recently though is if you buy an App from the App Store and then it is later revoked/removed, you do not automatically receive your money back. I think this is a serious flaw and if Apple is going remove Apps they need to auto-refund customers as well. If they don't fix this, it will erode consumer confidence in the App Store. I've had several apps removed from my phone now that I've had to email apple support about to get my refund. That's just unacceptable and there is no excuse for it.
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