iTunes swallowed a quarter of US music sales
World's largest retailer thumped
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One in four songs sold in the US are done so via Apple’s iTunes store, according to a new report.
NPD Group's MusicWatch division said today that while audio CDs remain the most popular format among music consumers, digital tracks notched up 35 per cent of all songs sold in the first half of 2009.
That’s a 15 per cent leap in sales compared with 2007 figures, and a five per cent jump on last year’s numbers.
NPD said that the iTunes store dominated digital music sales, accounting for 25 per cent of all songs sold in the US in the first six months of this year.
In 2008 it pulled in 21 per cent of all digital music sales, while in 2007 it grabbed 14 per cent of the market.
US retail giant Walmart takes second place in digital music sales, according to NPD. It raked in 14 per cent from downloads sold via its website as well as in store.
But iTunes outshines all other digital music retailers, where Apple leads the market by a hefty 69 per cent ahead of its rivals, said NPD.
Amazon’s MP3 store lags a long way behind the iTunes behemoth, gobbling up just eight per cent of the digital music market.
NPD garnered its findings from US consumers aged 13 and above, who reported their purchases of CDs, digital music tracks and albums sold a-la-carte, and wireless over-the-air transactions, excluding ringtones.
It didn't reveal how many US folk took part in the survey, however. NPD also overlooked the impact illegal file sharing has on digital music sales. ®
COMMENTS
Piracy
Estimates on the economic and employment damage caused by piracy vary. In the
UK, Jupiter Research valued the loss at £180 million in 2008.
Taking data over 3 years across muliple markets it is estimated nearly 95% of all music downloaded results in no payment to artist or record label.
[source ifpa]
http://onehandshake.blogspot.com
Re: The record companies are miming
Have I missed a joke or something...
Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 18th August 2009 17:22 GMT wrote:
"I was at a music event the other day, there was a DJ, he had the full setup. 2 turntables, big mixer, 2 headphones, he played a 2 hour set, smoothly mixing records on his turntables, queuing up the next record and playing with the sliders."
"He did everything, except for one small thing............ he never changed a record, not once, he just pretended to que the same 2 records over and over again."
Those records were probably timecode vinyls - they are recordings of signals, that when played into a the computer with appropriate software (see below), the position and speed of the track can be calculated to play a audio file on the computer accordingly, thus emulating vinyl.
Using this software and hardware
http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/dj/traktor-pro
or
http://www.scratchlive.net/
"The Apple Laptop on the corner of his turntable was really playing the music, he was just miming being a DJ."
Yup it probably was, but he still had the skill controlling the vinyl.
You'll find this at most music events, bars, clubs.
Am I telling you something you already know? I guess I might have missed something...
As far as iTunes taking more market share - that's progress. Sure saves carrying Vinyl around everywhere. I'm not a fan of iTunes though I have bought tunes from them, DRM and non-DRM. Also from amazon. Guess what? So convenient!
Music has been around long before record companies have. But record companies still have their role: how to position artists, when/where/how to release artists material, choosing the right time. Sure there might be some bad ones, but it is a populist view to slag them off, but all that aggregate knowledge over years of managing several artists has to be useful. Great works by an artist does not automatically sell itself. Sure they want their money, but this is business.
The industry continues to evolve. Selling music is not the only way for artists to make money: merchandise, festivals, concerts, sponsorship, use in adverts, film, television, computer games.
@AC 19/08/09 08:11 GMT
What an utterly pointless and arrogant twat. That is all.
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