Apple passes Wal-Mart, now #1 music retailer in US
[Quote:]
Over the past few years, we have watched Apple climb the music sales chart courtesy of the iTunes. Last month we learned that Apple passed Best Buy to become the number two retailer in the the US in December. Now, Apple has ascended to the top of the charts, surpassing Wal-Mart for the first time ever, according to an NPD MusicWatch Survey for the month January contained in an internal Apple e-mail which was leaked to Ars Technica but has not been officially published.
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For the music industry, there is a dark side to Apple’s ascension to the top of the charts. Buying patterns for digital downloads are different, as customers are far more likely to cherry pick a favorite track or two from an album than purchase the whole thing. In contrast, brick-and-mortar sales are predominantly high-margin CDs. For 2007, that translated into a 10 percent decline in overall music spending according to the NPD Group, and it’s a trend that’s expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
April 4th, 2008 at 14:21
Excellent. I’d like to thank Napster for popularizing digital distribution. And give Steve Jobs a raise for turning something illegal into the best selling channel for an old and outdated business. I am EXTREMELY excited to see how the music industry evolves now that its established business model has been rendered #2.
hehe