MUMBAI: Apple iTunes has widened its lead last year over former market leader Walmart, according to a report published by Billboard.
The report claims that iTunes accounted for 26.7 percent of all music sales in the US during 2009. The next best was Walmart, with less than half the sales of iTunes – 12.5 per cent. The top five is rounded out by Best Buy, Target, and Amazon in fifth spot at 7.1 per cent.
According to the music industry publication’s analysis of 2009 sales and market share, the top 20 U.S. music accounts accounted for 85 per cent of the total account base. That’s down from 88 per cent in 2008 and runs counter to an almost decade-long consolidation trend under which the top 20 accounts continued to capture an ever larger share of the total market. Brick-and-mortar… accounts dipped, while digital accounts made up a combined 35.5 per cent of the total account base, up from 31.6% in 2008, says Billboard.
Interestingly, iTunes and Amazon were the only retailers to show a growth in market share since 2008 (they were at 21.4 and 4.9 per cent, respectively), which is partially attributable to an increase from 42.5 percent to 50.7 per cent of digital music sales. All three physical stores in the top five saw market share drop in this period.
According to Apple, the iTunes Store has a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 movies including over 2,500 in high definition video. As of February 2010, over 10 billion songs have been purchased and downloaded from iTunes.