Apple's Lead in U.S. Music Sales Continues to Increase as iTunes Gains and Wal-Mart Falls

[MacRumors]

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Image courtesy of Fortune
Billboard reports on data for the full-year 2009 showing Apple's iTunes Store as the largest distributor of music in the United States with 26.7% of the market, up from 21.4% in 2008 and 12.7% in 2007. Apple's lead was further extended by second-place Wal-Mart's drop from 15% to 12.5%.

Last year's share gain was helped by Apple's embrace of variable pricing on digital tracks. But it remains to be seen if iTunes can continue to expand its market share this year, given that year-to-date digital track sales in the United States are down almost 1% from the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Last August, NPD reported Apple's share of the U.S. music market at 25% for the first half of the year, but recent comments from music industry executives suggest that iTunes' growth may be slowing.

Apple documented its climb up the U.S. music sales charts in a series of acknowledgements at keynotes and other events over the years, culminating with the company grabbing the top spot in early 2008.

Article Link: Apple's Lead in U.S. Music Sales Continues to Increase as iTunes Gains and Wal-Mart Falls

 

[marksman]

All Hail our New World Order with our awesome Leader Mr. Jobs.

Show us the light, else we shall only see darkness.

 

[Sky Blue]

Thought Amazon would be bigger than that.

 

[spillproof]

I bet Mr. Jobs will flaunt this at WWDC. WalMart and Amazon are still cheaper overall for me.

 

[mkrishnan]

Thought Amazon would be bigger than that.

Yeah... their year-over-year marketshare gain is impressive, though.

 

[Robert M.]

Cool, but aren't overall music sales at an all time low?

 

[iOrlando]

something looks off with that chart. the totals that are included in that are about 85%....tough to imagine 15% of the TOTAL MUSIC MARKET is not even included with that.

wasnt itunes like 60% of digital sales?

i dont disagree with the order of those companies but either those totals are off or I am confusing what exactly they are measuring....something funky going on there.

 

[RawBert]

That's Right, Baby! Who would've guessed in 2001 that iPod would bring Apple/iTunes to this point? Nice!

 

[sammich]

something looks off with that chart. the totals that are included in that are about 85%....tough to imagine 15% of the TOTAL MUSIC MARKET is not even included with that.

wasnt itunes like 60% of digital sales?

i dont disagree with the order of those companies but either those totals are off or I am confusing what exactly they are measuring....something funky going on there.

It's actually 23.3% missing. But I think it also takes into account the thousands of independent retailers/shops that sell music too.

 

[rickspel]

Really sad (and really surprising)to see that Hot Topic is listed at #20

 

[Eidorian]

I'll stick to not paying for my media whenever possible.

 

[lkrupp]

Thought Amazon would be bigger than that.

Funny how our perceptions often fail to match reality. The same thing happens when we apply our own personal preferences and biases to the population at large. The iPad was declared by many of our ilk (meaning trolls, fanboys, and tech wannabes) to be an "EPIC FAIL" because it lacked (fill in deal killing feature here). The market appears to be in disagreement at this point doesn't it.

 

[GoodWatch]

Up to 50 billion cash in the bank. But what good to do with it?

 

[AlphaBob]

Apple will continue to grow, but Amazon will grow faster

The market for all sorts of music is probably down due to the economy, but what the doom-and-gloom bunch is failing to take into account is the impact that 8 million iPad customers will have, along with a refresh of the iPhone in June, and the iPod in Aug/Sept. I'd be shocked if Apple didn't continue to grow share at the expense of others.

That said, the biggest story is that Apple sales increased by 26% this past year, while Amazon increased by 43%. That to me sounds like Apple's biggest threat, especially when consumers understand that Amazon generally offers lower prices than iTunes (and I've never seen a single case where iTunes was cheaper).

 

[SeattleMoose]

Once Google Media Store Opens...Its Over

Google is destroying Apple in every battlefield it enters.....and now they are entering the online media business.

Google appears unstoppable.....

 

[Salacion]

I'll stick to not paying for my media whenever possible.

That's selfish of you. How about I just don't pay you for whatever you do for a living.

 

[ataboc]

i still havenot purchased one song from itunes.

 

[adiosjefe]

I personally despise buying any media from iTunes. I would much rather buy non-drm mp3's from Amazon. Don't get me wrong I'm an Apple fan...iPhone, multiple ipods, macbook pro but I root for the competition. I'm hoping someone can knock Apple down, not just a little but a lot. I don't want to watch movies or tv shows on my computer and I don't want to buy an Apple TV. I want to download movies and watch them on my TV using my WDTV or any other device. Other than iTunes Plus you a totally locked to Apple devices. I don't understand why more people aren't upset by this.

 

[sgtCaspian]

yuck. this means most people buying music today are purchasing butchered compressed versions of what they'd be getting with a real CD.

dear apple,

START SELLING LOSSLESS MUSIC!

 

[ataboc]

yuck. this means most people buying music today are purchasing butchered compressed versions of what they'd be getting with a real CD.

dear apple,

START SELLING LOSSLESS MUSIC!

they do sell it.

they even give you an option to transcode lossy formats into lossless MAGICAL!

 

[macUser2007]

Google is destroying Apple in every battlefield it enters.....and now they are entering the online media business.

Google appears unstoppable.....

Yep.

Jobs pissed off a lot of people lately. For me, the Flash thing was the last straw - I'll continue to buy Apple desktop stuff, because nobody else does design as well, but will move my mobile use to Android (including tablet).

And while I used to push everyone I knew to buy the iPhone, now I am pushing them to Android. "Look ma, it does the REAL WEB!"

So, I'd guess the Google Music Store will take off like gangbusters, because Android will definitely eat rapidly into the iPhone's share.

All these Android phone users will be buying music from somewhere. And then add to them the Google TV users. And then the Google Tablet users....

Yep, music is one more chance to stick it to Steve The Megalomaniac.

 

[slu]

Thought Amazon would be bigger than that.

Me too. I use Amazon (used to use Lala as well) when I can so I rarely use iTunes, but iTunes is so easy to use and people already have it installed for their iPods. Even though they are more expensive, it just goes to show how powerful a super easy to use system can be.

 

[ataboc]

Yep.

Jobs pissed off a lot of people lately. For me, the Flash thing was the last straw - I'll continue to buy Apple desktop stuff, because nobody else does design as well, but will move my mobile use to Android (including tablet).

And while I used to push everyone I knew to buy the iPhone, now I am pushing them to Android. "Look ma, it does the REAL WEB!"

So, I'd guess the Google Music Store will take off like gangbusters, because Android will definitely eat rapidly into the iPhone's share.

All these Android phone users will be buying music from somewhere. And then add to them the Google TV users. And then the Google Tablet users....

Yep, music is one more chance to stick it to Steve The Megalomaniac.

I understand that's becoming cool to hate on apple. I just had a horrible experience at the apple store and it put a bitter taste in my mouth.

But the UI of apple is just so much better.

Which andriod device do you have?

I played with my buddy's droid and wasn't impressed. i had to go into settings to turn on wi-fi. i understand you can root the nexus1 and other devices to fully customize. I really do like the iphone.

 

[sgtCaspian]

they do sell it.

they even give you an option to transcode lossy formats into lossless MAGICAL!

forgive me for not knowing about this.

how do i find lossless music in the iTunes store?

lossy to lossless conversion? WTF?

that actually has me wondering. does anyone know if it's possible to regain lost audio data by running compression algorithms in reverse (in a manner of speaking)?

 

[iOrlando]

this chart continues to bother me haha. i did some research into it and yeah I have a problem with their methodology as to how they come up with the market shares. I highly doubt that the top 20 music sellers still dont account for 30% of the market. That tells me there is way too much estimating going on.

The orders are probably right, but the numbers next to the names are probably wrong.