iTunes reps 1 in every 4 songs sold in U.S.

Faced with heat from iTunes and other digital downloads, the nearly-three-decade-old music CD is slowly melting away.

iTunes-purchased songs now account for 25 percent of the overall music market--both physical and digital--in the U.S., says an NPD Group report released Tuesday. However, CDs are still the most popular format for music lovers, winning a 65 percent slice of the market for the first half of 2009.

An iTunes playlist

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney)

Digital music downloads have jumped in recent years, said NPD, hitting 35 percent of the overall market for the first half of this year, compared with 30 percent last year and 20 percent in 2007.

For the first half of 2009, iTunes itself snagged a 69 percent share of the overall digital music arena, trailed far behind by Amazon.com with 8 percent.

"The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apple's success in holding that market, has increased iTunes's overall strength in the retail music category," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD Group.

The CD, though, marches on. Among CD retailers, Wal-Mart leads with a 20 percent chunk of the physical music market, said NPD. Best Buy took a 16 percent share, followed by Target and Amazon at 10 percent each.

Still, the days of the CD seem numbered.

"Many people are surprised that the CD is still the dominant music delivery format, given the attention to digital music and the shrinking retail footprint for physical products," said Crupnick. "But with digital music sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end of 2010."

Correction at 3:30 p.m.: The venerable audio CD is actually 27 years old.

[relseh]

So, in other words: 3 out of every 4 songs sold in the US are in mp3 format by default and not tied to one device/manufacturer (Apple/Ipod) - without having to spend time ripping it back to Mp3?

Honestly, this is not news worthy for the fact that they have 25% of the share unless you are stating your surprise in that they only have 25% share - in fact, I would have expected, with the prevalence of the iPod that iTunes would have about 70% of the market share on music sales. 25% of the share with over 70% of the market owning iPods seems incredibly low. Are you sure you have your facts straight Lance?

[weixiong100]

I think you are they one who got mixed up. This article is saying iTunes has 25% of the WHOLE market share, including the physical CD's, not just mp3 downloads.

[SteenMachine]

I'm not sure you know what you're talking about.

35% of the music sales are digital (there's some conversion where 1 CD = 11 or 12 individual digital downloads). Apple owns 70% of the digital market. 70% of the 35% ~ 25%. So Apple has a 25% share of all music sales.

And iTunes is DRM-free. There is no lock down to the ecosystem.

These are the facts. Do you have yours straight?

[catch23]

SteenMachine
Some of iTunes is DRM-free . They still DRM movies, ya know?
And they were the biggest pusher of DRM on the market. Even after Steve shed some crocodile tears over the issue, they still continued to push DRM.

When Apple shuts down those authentication servers at some future point, have fun re-purchasing all your media.

[ibeetle]

@catch23

I was going to go through each of your points and point out the inaccuracies. In the end it was just easier to say:

Not one think you said is true. Nothing. Every word is completely 100% wrong.

[scarface74]

"Some of iTunes is DRM-free . They still DRM movies, ya know? "

There is *no* DRM music on iTunes and hasn't been in over six months.

[ballmerisanape]

catch23,

This article is about music.. not movies. Who sells online movies without DRM?

Apple was not the "biggest pusher".. they were the biggest online provider.. that switched to DRM free along side Amazon.

Apple sells high quality AAC format music with no DRM. Buy a song from amazon in mp3 and then purchase the same song in AAC from iTunes.... the AAC song will sound a lot better... and is just as open as mp3.

[SteenMachine]

Good Lord catch23, someone **** in your cornflakes this morning?

As others have pointed out, this article is about music. I said nothing about movies.

And it's well documented that the Labels pushed DRM on iTunes, not Apple. It's a two-way negotiation.

And honestly, your CDs will become scratched / broken / lost / whatever way before the authentication servers shut down. Have fun repurchasing old media.

[windooor7]

With the wild world popularity of window 7 and new zune HD, if microsoft can change the image of windows media player. and get rid of that zune os, and force every device in their catlog, even the upcomming window mobile 7os devices, to use the new window media 12, then, they can quickly start moving to the right direction.And belive it they will get there. if they obey this simple rules. force each of their device to use media player 12.

[DrtyDogg]

@SteenMachine: The only "documentation" that the labels pushed DRM on iTunes was from the Apple PR team itself.

[baconstang]

@windoor7.... You are trying to be funny, aren't you?

[therobot]

I'm still upset they stopped selling 8-tracks!

[Perry_Clease]

Use an 8 track cartridge to make a carrying case for your iPod and earbuds. :)

[OldShoeLover]

I started out with iTunes, but I much prefer Amazon's mp3 store now. I have an iPod, and probably will always have an iPod, but I just don't like the idea of AAC, let's stick with a standard... MP3!

[nickh2]

AAC is standardized by ISO and IEC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

[ballmerisanape]

best uninformed post....ever.

[baconstang]

Let's stick with a standard.. 78RPM.

[OldShoeLover]

It is not an uniformed post. I realize that AAC is a standard. But there are more widely used standards. I guess I should modify my position. I realize that AAC has certain advantages, and I can understand that some people (maybe many people) would rather have that than use a more universal format. I should have said that I will stick with a more universal standard.

[sanjayb]

ITunes allows u to convert ACC to MP3. That's what I do.

[Inconnux]

and the #1 song on itunes... 'do you want to date my avatar' by the guild... :) beating out all the commercial crap!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urNyg1ftMIU

too funny :)

[Len Bullard]

Ummm.... The Whedon's are commercial. They simply aren't arrogant enough to ignore the web. I'd hazard a guess that Joss is awfully proud of Felicia Day.

That video will drive Gamers into the mainstream or kill the industry dead. Either way, it is brilliant.

[ckh1272]

FYI, it's the #1 video on iTunes, not song. Impressive none the less though.

[tektaktyks]

yea,good for apple,the prices are ok and its easy to buy it,but itunes is crap.from software point of view,plain garbage

[sterlingcoo]

Harsh. Why?

[Mystigo]

Yea. how is it crap again? It seems to work pretty well for me.

[baconstang]

Anything that's not MS is crapola in the world of the tek_tyke.

[tektaktyks]

not at all,im not a ms fan,its just huge(in hd size),slow,hangs up,loads very slow,always some problems with covers etc ,always backing up the iphone,cant move the music from the phone to the comp,i move the file it cant load it anymore,when i want to close it i have to wait...and wait and it asks me if im sure i want to close it because some other mystery thing is using it,probably more issues that i cant remember now or i unconsciously block from memory :) ,i had zen micro from creative long time ago and everything was smooth,i still have se 810 and it is so easy to add,move files and this itunes thing is just big pain in the arse ,oh! the thing that u can authorize a device on 5 computers only? how stupid is that? i have 3 os on my pc and im going to install win 7 over the rc that i have on now...thats 4 computers for itunes,plus my gf's pc who borrows the phone sometimes thats 5,now if i need to reinstall os or get a new pc(or mac) im sure i could call apple and they would do something but why? because its stupid...eh

[sterlingcoo]

People still buy CDs?

[bbabadu]

Absolutely - all the time. I prefer to have a physical copy of my music purchases. That way, you own the real digital deal, and can convert it to whatever format you wish (lossless or lossy).

[thelemurking]

I buy used CDs all the time from Amazon and Half.com. A lot of stuff I can pick up for around 75 cents - $4 with right at $3 shipping. So for a whole lot less than what iTunes charges for a full album, I can buy the physical copy of it, rip it any way I wish from FLAC to OGG to MP3 V0 and never have to worry about a harddrive crash and losing my iTunes library.

I'd rather have the physical CD over the digital media any day of the week... the only bad thing is the actual space it takes up to have a large CD collection as opposed to the non-tangible digital copies.

[sterlingcoo]

All good reasons, makes a lot of sense, good answers. I bought my last CD - dunno - 4 years ago?

The online option saves me, what, thousands per year? I think you will find that is the one and only argument that will bury the physical format. Besides, I hate my gd CD collection - full of dust and cracked cases with missing discs and covers. Everything - lyrics, art, songs, commentary, articles - lives online, so do I.

[sterlingcoo]

Opps, forgot to add, most of my online music consumption is online radio - where I gladly pay and support the station. Gladly, in fact, I'm gonna send them a 100 bucks this month, that's how much I appreciate the online radio format.

[Perry_Clease]

Occasionally, when I find one at a good deal and you can find some "oldies" in marked down bins. However, mostly I buy tracks from iTunes.

[shusseina2]

Absolutely, with a decent pair of speakers the audio quality from a CD easily surpasses that of a downloaded MP3 or AAC. It's a shame that finally the industry has moved to digital downloads only to find that the audio quality has gone backwards.

Digital downloads are great in the car or with an iPod, but with a decent sound system they're below par.

[baconstang]

The focus of audio development over the past 25 years has NOT been that of improving the quality of sound.

[thelemurking]

I would imagine that The Pirate Bay reps about 8 out of every 10 songs downloaded ;)

I think in 4 years, I have bought only one album off of iTunes and I felt ripped off afterwards. Ben Folds iTunes Exclusive or some crap like that which was mostly songs from other albums with just a little introduction by Ben Folds before the songs. So I paid $10 for the same songs I already had, but just to hear him tell a 10-15 second story about it before hand. Haven't bought a thing from iTunes since.

[ballmerisanape]

Didn't you look at the content before you bought it??? The tracks with the same names wasn't a big enough giveaway for you? Interesting. That's like blaming Ford because you hopped into a Mustang, floored it.. and slammed into a wall.

[dontlookdown487]

No... Thats like buying the NEW, Faster, more economic 2010 mustang, just to find out it's the same Mustang as last year with new streamlined cup holders and side mirrors.

Given that there is a LOT of addition exclusive content on iTunes that is good stuff. Many acoustic versions, or live versions, or remixes etc.

[ballmerisanape]

The GT and base have improved suspension over the 05-09 models. The base GT is basically an 08 Bullitt.. but with a much nicer interior.. and a glass roof ;)

Bummer that they kept the 4.6 in the GT and 4.0 in the 6er. Would have liked to see the 250HP + Ecoboost in the 6er and a nice 5.0 in the GT.

[bluHorseshoe]

I have always hated CDs, they scratch too easy and the cases always break. BUT, I still buy all my music on CD and rip to FLAC. All the old rock has been remastered and sounds MUCH better, especially compared to illegal mp3?s. iTunes is just too much of a hassle with my Windows Vista.

[mlauzon]

Two-decade-old music CD? Excuse me, the music CD has been around for almost 3 decades, it [the CD] came out in 1982; and one of the first CDs had ABBA on it. Way to do your research!

[shycelticwitch]

My goodness, the abject jealousy shown in some of these comments is amazing! I never knew that there was such a large faction of society that judged the success of their day by the number of inane, ridiculous statements they can make about subjects they know nothing about, but seem to have all the answers for. Want some milk to go with those cookies?

[baconstang]

"But with digital music sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end of 2010.".......
Ummm, so CDs aren't digital?

[eeee]

so iTunes has 25% of the market based on some report (that Apple somehow may have influence in publishing to the press?) anyway
NOT SURPRISING: PEOPLE ARE LAZY; THEY ARE LAZY IN THINKING ABOUT WHICH MUSIC PLAYER TO BUY
THEY ARE LAZY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE THEIR OWN MISIC FILES FROM CDS
THEY ARE LAZY TO FIND OUT HOW TO SPEND LESS ON MUSIC FILES FROM ONLINE SOURCES
THEY ARE LAZY AND JUST CLICK AND SPEND ON ITUNES AND
CONGRATS TO APPLE FOR MAKING THEM SO LAZY TO THE BENEFIT OF APPLE'S FORTUNE

IF IT IS EASY IT HAPPENS AND IS SUCCESFUL AND APPLE HAS CONVINCED ENOUGH TO GO APPLE FOR THEIR MUSIC PLAYERS AND THEIR MUSIC PURCHASE BOTH VIA ITUNES ON COMPUTERS AND ON THEIR PHONES