Apple iTunes is now the third largest retailer of music in the US with a 9.8% market share, according to a study just released by NPD Group MusicWatch, which measured both physical and downloadable music sales in the first quarter of 2007.
What I found particularly interesting is that iTunes now sells more music than Amazon.com, who have a market share of 6.7%. In first place was Walmart with 15.8% and Best Buy were in second place with 13.8%. Also, 86.2% of overall market shares came from physical CD sales which means that iTunes controls 70% of the music download market.
Personally I’m not a big fan of the iTunes store, as it doesn’t seem to cover the music that I like. I also hate the DRM which means that I can’t play my music where I want. In fact, I’ve actually gone back to buying CDs and paying a premium so that I can play my music where I want and also so that I can import my tracks into my library in a lossless format. Using a lossless format has increased my storage problems, but I’ve still managed to pack around 5000 tracks onto my 60GB iPod which is more than enough music to carry around.
