iTunes Still in the top
The NPD Group says iTunes remains the first U.S. retailer music, but Amazon is showing strength, partly due to its DRM-free MP3 store.
Market research firm NPD Group has published new numbers for the retail sale of music during the first half of 2008, and believes that the Apple iTunes Music Store still leads the pack among music retailers, based on purchases of CDs and count every 12 individual tracks sold online as equivalent to an album. Brick-and-mortar retailers Wal-Mart and Best Buy came in second and third, respectively, with the Amazon and Target taking the fourth and fifth positions.
Apple took over the top slot in the U.S. music retailer earlier this year, displacing Wal-Mart, and NPD’s latest market figures continue to show consumers which covers sales of digital music. The NPD possible spoiler in the latest issue could be Amazon, the online retailer fell from fifth to fourth place overall, partly due to its online sales of traditional music CDs have not fallen off as badly as sales of CDs traditional brick and mortar outlets, Amazon and DRM-free MP3 store is helping the company build on its way into the market for online music.
"We expect that Apple will consolidate its leadership in the retail market for music, as CD sales continue to slow," said NPD analyst at the entertainment industry Russ Crupnick, in a statement. "Amazon’s CD buyers tend to be older and therefore have not left the CD format to the extent seen in the middle music buyer."
Of the five major music retailers, Amazon is the only company with a presence in traditional CD and digital download market. (Which is not to say Wal-Mart and Best Buy have not tried to enter the digital music business-they just have not been successful.
