iTunes Passes Wal-Mart As Top Music Retailer in US; MySpace Announces Deal
Further evidence of the rise of online music was confirmed today as Apple announced they are now the United States’ top music retailer, overtaking previous leader Wal-Mart.
“We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone.”
The Apple press release boasted 50 million customers and 19% of the total market share, compared to 15% for Wal-Mart and and 13% for Best Buy, the company Apple just recently passed to move into the number two slot.
The research behind this proclamation came courtesy of NPD, whose study also noted that 48% of US teens didn’t buy a single CD in 2007, up from 38% in 2006. Undoubtedly, that trend will continue, especially after NPD reported an even sharper spike in digital downloads over the last several months. All of those iTunes gift cards handed out by lazy uncles (I’m talking about myself here) couldn’t have hurt either.
Also today, MySpace announced they are teaming up with three of the four major labels (Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner) to create an independent joint venture that will fuse the popular MySpace Music with a service from the major labels that will offer DRM-free downloads, ad supported content, concert tickets, and other merchandise. The idea is to integrate the new content into the MySpace music artist pages and in turn connect through member homepages. MySpace CEO Amit Kapur also mentioned that any label that wants to get on board is welcome, so there would appear to be an even playing field that would allow the virtuosity of the artist to be the prime determinant of success.
Technorati Tags: itunes, myspace music, music sales
