Tied for second place is Walmart and Amazon, which both took a 12 percent share of the total market for both digital music and physical media sales. Amazon increased its music market share by 3 percentage points, while Apple's share grew by 4 points.
NPD says digital sales now account for 40 percent of the US market, an increase of five percentage points over last year. NPD also stated that Apple's share of the market for digital sales only grew by one percentage point to claim 70 percents share of downloads, while Amazon picked up 4 points to reach a 12 percent share of the digital market.
Russ Crupnick, vice president of industry analysis for NPD said "the decline in US CD sales means that selection and merchandising of the physical CDs is suffering, which is one of the primary reasons consumers say they purchased CDs less frequently.
"Online shopping offers consumers who still want CDs more variety than they would get in a brick-and-mortar store; plus, recommendations, and other interactive features that raise the overall value proposition for music buyers."
Despite Amazon's growth, Apple faces federal investigation from the Department of Justice to determine if the company is leveraging its market power to prevent competition in its negotiations with music labels.
8 Comments
iTunes has come a long way since its introduction. Completely revolutionized its industry, just like everything else Apple makes.
They'll have a hard time proving that Apple has any special leverage over the record companies, there are too many alternatives to iTunes for consumers.
Wow! I knew iTunes was the big dog...something like selling more music than the next two competitors combined. (I may have that wrong, btw)
But nevertheless good for Amazon. And what a message this should be sending to the TV industry, book publishing industry, school text book industry, magazine industry, newspaper industry, Advertising industry and Movie industry...get the F onboard with Apple, the largest tech company in the world and the second largest company after Exxon in the world....
HP gets it, paying $1 billion for WebOS (that's $1,000 million, btw), and postponing the Slate tablet. MS is finally getting it, I guess, by canceling Courier and firing two of their top execs for screwing up their phone OS and consumer division.
Yahoo, gets it by partnering with errr Amiga? Can't remember and who cares!
Sheez!
They'll have a hard time proving that Apple has any special leverage over the record companies, there are too many alternatives to iTunes for consumers.
Only because the record companies are stuck in a time warp...
Just like the Beatles...got bad advice in the 60's and getting bad advice now! 'Imagine' that! Let it Be, let it be! Oh, Yo...ko or Oh no Yoko! All things must pass....
Best
The Justice Department's investigation just means U.S. tax dollars are being wasted when going after a "monopolistic" corporation with only 28 percent of the market.
Meanwhile Microsoft's operating system has a de facto monopoly, with like 90-something percent of all computer users, and yet the U.S. government allows this to continue. In fact in all U.S. government offices I'm willing to bet the percentage of Microsoft users is even higher, probably approaching 100 percent.