iTunes Sells 25% Of All US Music, 69% Of Downloads
But You Still Need To Press A CDA new NPD MusicWatch study shows that now iTunes leads the U.S. with 25% percent of total music sold including downloads and CDs That's up from 21% in '08 and 14% in '07. Walmart
(including Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads) remains in
second position with 14% and Best Buy ranked third.
iTunes continued to also solidify its lead in digital downloads sales grabbing 69% of market in the first half of 2009, followed by AmazonMP3 at 8%. Walmart leads all sellers of CDs with a 20% percent share followed by Best Buy at 16% and
Target and Amazon tied at 10% each.
CDs still comprised 65% of all music sold in the first half of 2009 with 35% going to digital. But CD numbers are falling rapidy. By comparison, in 2007 paid digital music downloads comprised just 20% of sales.
"Many people are surprised that the CD is still the dominant music
delivery format, given the attention to digital music and the shrinking
retail footprint for physical products,” said Russ Crupnick, vice
president of entertainment industry analysis “But with digital music
sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal
proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end
of 2010.”
“The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apple’s success in
holding that market, has increased iTunes’s overall strength in the
retail music category,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry
analyst for The NPD Group. “But the importance of the big box retailers
shouldn’t be dismissed, as long as the majority of music consumers
continue to buy CDs.
