iTunes cracks top 10 US music retailer list

[AppleInsider]

Apple Computer's iTunes unit sales have surpassed that of major US music retailers Tower Records, Sam Goody and Borders, propelling the iTunes Music Store into the top 10 list of leading music retailers for the first time, according to a report from NPD Group.

For the third quarter of 2005 Apple ranked seventh on the list of leading US Music retailers, up from the fourteenth spot a year ago.

Based on the number of songs sold, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target and Amazon.com remained the top-four music retailers in the U.S., respectively. Trans World Entertainment's FYE and Circuit City also ranked ahead of Apple, ranking fifth and sixth, according to the report.

With the holidays fast approaching, NPD said it expects to see a continued rise in Apple's share of the US retail music market.

"The ongoing and growing popularity of Apple’s iTunes Music Store now positions the company as a leading music retailer, and continues to legitimize legal digital music retailing," said Russ Crupnick, music and movies industry analyst for The NPD Group. "With the growing interest in digital music, forecasts of more iPod demand this holiday, plus the stocking-stuffer appeal of iTunes gift cards, we can expect Apple to increase its share even more by year’s end."

To date, shoppers at Apple's iTunes Music Store have purchased and downloaded well over 600 million tunes.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Gene Clean]

Credit: News.com

[Bmaier]

Apple makes little profit off of the sale of its music downloads: can it really remain a prominent music reseller forever? What about bandwidth and server space?

It must all be worth it for the iPod sales...

Apple has been a hardware and software company for as long as I can remember. The transition in to the digital music market was, sure, an accessory to its popular iPod but a fluke which has nonetheless positioned Apple to top digital music resellers in terms of quantity. Can Apple keep up the momentum?

[CosmoNut]

Anybody else think this news is STAGGERING?

[Chris Cuilla]

Originally posted by CosmoNut
Anybody else think this news is STAGGERING?

It is pretty big news I think.

[Chris Cuilla]

Originally posted by Bmaier
Apple makes little profit off of the sale of its music downloads: can it really remain a prominent music reseller forever? What about bandwidth and server space?

It must all be worth it for the iPod sales...

a) A key issue is that Apple is not losing money on the "blades" (music) in order to sell the razors (iPods).

b) Apple is likely making a much greater profit on the music than you might guess.

[thrillho]

who are the other top 10 retailers behind CC and in front of apple?

[Mac~N~Cheese]

Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
It is pretty big news I think.

See, that's what I was thinking, as well. Apple may never buy California with what it gets from selling music song by song....but over 600 MILLION and more every single day? I think that says a lot. Not sure how much more Apple can grab of the portable MP3 market (what...85%, now?), but it certainly scares the Hell out of Rio, Dell, RealNetworks, Walmart, Target, Napster, Microsoft & Sony who started the whole portable music market in the first place. At least enough to waste millions trying to catch up.

As I say, not sure how much more they can expand, but the iPod Video & the ROKR iTunes-phone is a step in the right direction.

Now, if Apple could just get more people to buy more computers. I'm doing what I can...but I'm only one person.

=)

[Glamingo]

Great humor Mac~N~Cheese

[Kasper]

Originally posted by Gene Clean
Credit: News.com

?

Clean,

NPD issued a public release. Every single piece of information in our report was taken from the release with the exception of the last paragraph, which was taken from an Apple Press Release.

http://www.npd.com/dynamic/releases/press_051121a.html

-Kasper

[eekles77]

Originally posted by thrillho
who are the other top 10 retailers behind CC and in front of apple?

Ummm...Apple is right after CC. They are 7th on the list as stated in the article.

[ClimbingTheLog]

That's damn impressive because every time somebody buys a CD at WalMart to get one good song, Apple has to sell twelve good songs to break even.

[Mac~N~Cheese]

Originally posted by Glamingo
Great humor Mac~N~Cheese

And that was my first post! Wait 'til I get warmed up.

[Glamingo]

Will do (no pressure)

[Catman4d2]

b) Apple is likely making a much greater profit on the music than you might guess

yeah and so are the record companys... not having to produce all the materials paper and plastic etc. and all the shipping etc. "so dont let them fool you when they say they need to raise prices they are only trying to make up for the discs knowone is buying that they are still trying to hock on us..."


Why doesnt the movie industry catch on? Uncle George, "lucas" said earlier this week in an article that the only way to stop piracy is to give people what they want when and how they want it... and make it affordable.

he was speaking of how football games are, people still go to an event but most watch it on t.v. and movies could be the same way you can go to a large arena with a huge digital screen or pay per view it at home and burn it onto a disk of your own and already have the dvd!!! and he quoted the concept of
Itunes as being the blue print for it...

With this mac Tivo buisness Happening Apple may yet beat the Sloths to the punch....... "back on topic though" i have said it before Apple has really lead the way here,i think they have saved the industry with Itunes and the ipod! personally before they came along I was fed up with music because of the way the industry was and because disks were so expensive apple made me love music again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cha ching 0.2 cents

[Chris Cuilla]

Originally posted by Catman4d2
yeah and so are the record companys... not having to produce all the materials paper and plastic etc. and all the shipping etc. "so dont let them fool you when they say they need to raise prices they are only trying to make up for the discs knowone is buying that they are still trying to hock on us..."

I know all of this. I wasn't making any editorial comment.

I wasn't saying that it is a bad thing for Apple or the music companies to be making a profit. I was just pointing out that Apple is likely making a much greater profit than it might look like...or than they are advertising.

[SpamSandwich]

With more companies trying to crack Apple's nut, I think as iPod sales eventually start leveling out, they'll open up a license for their DRM to keep the audience expanding. iPhone anyone? Possibly they'll introduce new high & low-end products to satisfy whatever real demand there is for digital movies soon. Macintel videobook anyone?