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Apple number one music retailer in the US

3 April 2008 4:51 by Matti "Siggy" V�h�kainu | 7 comments

Last June Apple was the number three music retailer behind dominant brick and mortar retailers Wal-Mart and Best Buy. According to Ars Technica some Apple employees received an email today which included a spreadsheet of NPD Group's latest research of top ten music retailers in the United States. Apple had become the number one music retailer in the US.

The NPD MusicWatch Survey makes it official, the first time in chart's history, Wal-Mart has been surpassed. To make it more revolutionary, it's a retailer that doesn't sell physical copies of music. This definitely proves that music industry is on the verge of change, whether the industry giants want to believe it or not.

The survey's top ten was dominated by Apple's iTunes with 19 percent of the total sales, Wal-Mart with 15 and Best Buy with 13. Amazon hasn't seen growth and has held the fourth place with 6 percent. The bottom six included such retailers as Borders, Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, and at the tenth place Rhapsody with 1 percent.

As a whole the music industry suffered a 10 percent decline in music sales, which can be explained by the decrease in sales of high-margin CDs. Nearly half of the teenagers in the US didn't buy a single CD in 2007, a dramatic increase from the 38 percent in 2006. Unprecedentedly, almost third of the music sold in January was downloaded and if the music industry giants take a couple steps more to support the digital distribution of music, we could even see an increase in sales in 2008.

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Permalink to this article

AC/DC album to be Wal-Mart exclusive (11 June 2008)

Wal-Mart to promote Blu-ray in June (3 June 2008)

iTunes to sell movies on the DVD release date (1 May 2008)

Amazon MP3 is having no effect on iTunes, says NPD (15 April 2008)

Amazon offers credit to HD DVD player owners (9 April 2008)

Amazon becomes iTunes' biggest competitor for digital downloads (26 March 2008)

Starz content now available on iTunes (25 March 2008)

Update: Unlimited iTunes subscription is all rumor (20 March 2008)

Apple to offer unlimited access to iTunes store? (19 March 2008)

iTunes finishes 2007 as second biggest US music retailer (26 February 2008)

Apple plans to launch a music service (5 March 2003)

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21Q (Senior Member) 3 April 2008 7:26
This isn't very surprising news at all. With the convenience of music right at your computer, which most people have these days, you never have to leave your room. Now I don't buy music, but I still don't get what I listen to illegally. Lets just say that I'm no audiofile. But yeah, cd's and music store's all together aren't going to last much longer. I actually don't personally know anyone with a cd player anymore. [ + quote]
7thsinger (AfterDawn Addict) 3 April 2008 8:31
This does not come to me as a big surprise to me either. And for me it's not about the convience of buying online, it's NOT having to pay between $15 and $20 for the two songs i like, and 12 others that vary between sucking and absolute filler trash. I like getting the songs i like, not a bunch i won't listen too. *Quote:* I actually don't personally know anyone with a cd player anymore. I'm one! I still have my big stereo and my extensive cd collection, that i use frequently at home. But, i haven't bought a cd in...well...quite a while. EDIT: Grammar and spelling. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 3 April 2008 8:32
eatsushi (Senior Member) 3 April 2008 10:56
From the original arstechnica/NPD article: 71% of all music units sold is still on physical media. [ + quote]
DXR88 (Senior Member) 3 April 2008 20:50
i Have a BoomBox ManuFactured back in April 1994 that has a Cd Player Built in Still Sounds Good for its age too. MC Hammer Anyone, You cant Touch This yeah not suprized at all. And with the DRM Destroying tools out there its a great way to buy music. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 3 April 2008 20:51
ripxrush (Junior Member) 3 April 2008 22:12
no way! i had heard they r going outta th music business [ + quote]
ydkjman (Member) 4 April 2008 3:18
I wonder if people know that Wal-Mart now sells their music in mp3 non-DRM format. The price did go up a little bit from their original price of .88 cents. They are now .94 which is 5 cents cheaper than Amazon. The majority of the MP3s are encoded at 256 kbps, with others at 192 kbps. So I wonder how long Apple will hold that title? [ + quote]
wetsparks (Member) 5 April 2008 21:26
I'm one of the people that didn't buy a CD last year. I just don't like most of the crap that is on the radio anymore, so there is no reason to go out and buy the CDs. [ + quote]