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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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itunes.jpg
NPD has released its most recent report examining digital music downloads in the United States.

The research firm reports that Apple continues to hold a 63% share of the market down from 66% in 2010, with Amazon at 22%, up from 13% 3 years ago. Some 44 million Americans bought at least one song last year, with NPD saying that number has remained stable over the past three years.
"Since the launch of Apple's iTunes store, digital music downloads have become the dominant revenue source for the recorded music industry and iTunes continues to be the dominant retailer," said Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysis at NPD. "There's a belief that consumers don't need to buy music because of streaming options, when in fact streamers are much more likely than the average consumer to buy music downloads."
However, only 38 percent of consumers said it was important to own music, while 41 percent of users of streaming music services like Pandora or Spotify said they had purchased music they discovered on such a service.

The relatively low number of consumers who find it important to own music may be part of the impetus to Apple's development of an 'iRadio' streaming music service. Apple is rumored to be pushing hard for a Summer 2013 launch.

Article Link: Apple Maintains Digital Music Dominance, But Amazon Making Significant Gains
 

Derekuda

Suspended
Oct 2, 2004
370
1,382
I'm one of those people that made the switch. Amazon has alot of $5 sales and they use plain old MP3 which works on any player and not just iPod.
 

Rocco83

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2011
285
407
The only time I buy songs from iTunes is when I get 3-5 free songs from Apple after using their customer support.
 

FrancoisC

macrumors 6502a
Jan 27, 2009
546
281
Montreal, Qc
I'm one of those people that made the switch. Amazon has alot of $5 sales and they use plain old MP3 which works on any player and not just iPod.

The music files on iTunes are playable on a broad range of players, not just iWhatever. :)

But it's true that music is often cheaper on amazon.
 

Tinmania

macrumors 68040
Aug 8, 2011
3,528
1,016
Aridzona
I'm one of those people that made the switch. Amazon has alot of $5 sales and they use plain old MP3 which works on any player and not just iPod.
I made the switch a few years ago, before Apple stopped DRM'ing. Even without DRM I have not gone back to iTunes. If I see a song I want in iTunes I hop over to Amazon MP3 to get it. It still ends up in iTunes so there is little difference in the end (except that it usually is less expensive).

Plus, as you noted, there are some nice sales on Amazon.




Michael
 

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
As far as digital music goes Amazon rocks. I still prefer to buy CDs b/c I'm a lossless guy. But when I do buy digital it's on Amazon. 1) Usually much better price & 2) free cloud storage and playback.
 

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
It still ends up in iTunes so there is little difference in the end (except that it usually is less expensive).

One difference: It's mighty convenient to have stuff be part of your iTunes purchase history.

I love picking up an Apple device and being able to re-download something I bought on another without paying for iTunes match.

I'm not saying that's worth it to everyone, but that's one thing that keeps me coming back to the iTunes store.
 

Uofmtiger

macrumors 68020
Dec 11, 2010
2,299
1,026
Memphis
I recently received an email from Amazon saying that I had purchased CDs and other physical media that they were allowing me to download a digital copy from their website.

I wonder if these are being counted as music downloads when they were just tacked on to prior purchases?
 

genovelle

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,098
2,674
When I buy DVD's they often come with an iTunes version

Wonder if this is counted as an iTunes sale?
If so I'm sure the Digital Movie Sales would have skyrocketed when they started doing this. It didn't so I would say no.
 

DDaddyx2

macrumors regular
Jan 6, 2012
100
7
Indianapolis, IN
Since I have Spotify, I rarely buy music. But when I do, I tend to get it from Amazon for two reasons:
#1 - Prices are usually better
#2 - It's convenient to use their web Cloud Player to listen to the music at my job

Amazon has made it simple enough with their downloader to import the music into iTunes.
 

genovelle

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,098
2,674
I made the switch a few years ago, before Apple stopped DRM'ing. Even without DRM I have not gone back to iTunes. If I see a song I want in iTunes I hop over to Amazon MP3 to get it. It still ends up in iTunes so there is little difference in the end (except that it usually is less expensive).

Plus, as you noted, there are some nice sales on Amazon.




Michael
I like the fact that every thing I have ever purchased from the iTunes store is always available to me on my iPhone, iPad and Macs. I really like when I don't even store them all any more because there are so many, I just download what I want to hear.
 
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