iTunes Continues Its Creep Toward Music-Retail Dominance
In what we’re chalking up to a triumph of commerce being logically integrated into everyday applications, iTunes is the third-largest music retailer in the United States, not far behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy. According to the NPD Group, iTunes has 9.8% marketshare in all music retail, with Best Buy commanding 13.8% and Wal-Mart grabbing a 15.8% share. The company that iTunes leapfrogged to get into the top three? Amazon, which is–after all this time–still readying its MP3 store. Whether or not that store’s launch will help Amazon gain marketshare on iTunes is up in the air, although we’re betting that it’ll help pump up the digital marketplace as a whole–86.2 percent of all record sales surveyed came in CD format, and surely at least some of Amazon’s music buyers will make the digital switch–especially the overcaffeinated, hyper-impulsive purchasers. (Or the people who have mail carriers who, for some reason, have an aversion to delivering packages in a timely manner. Not that we know anyone who has that problem or anything…)
