Apple confirms leaked data: iTunes tops the charts

Apple has confirmed data leaked from an internal memo showing that it has become the largest music retailer in the U.S.

The iTunes Music Store is now the leading music retailer in the U.S.

(Credit: Apple)

Earlier Thursday, Ars Technica reported that certain Apple employees had received an internal e-mail with the results of a study conducted by The NPD Group. NPD initially declined to comment on the data, citing the fact that it was leaked from Apple, but Apple distributed a press release Thursday afternoon confirming the data from NPD's MusicWatch survey.

Apple didn't include its market share in the release, but Ars reported that Apple had 19 percent of overall music sales in the U.S. during January, compared with Wal-Mart's 16 percent. Apple did say that its achievement was based on two months of data, from sales in January and February of this year.

One interesting note about NPD's MusicWatch survey is that it equates 12 tracks with the sale of one CD. iTunes generates a lot of one- or two-track purchases as compared with the purveyors of physical CDs, where you either buy the whole thing or you don't. All those 99-cent transactions apparently add up.

[technewsjunkie]

Well executed, and answered consumer demand

Good for them. The record companies lost me as a customer (a very, very good cu$tomer) years ago.<br /><br />Apple made it Easy, affordable, and fun.

[john55440]

CDs offer superior sound quality

iTunes = lowfi (No thanks.)<br /><br />I get my CDs from Amazon.com.

[GGGlen]

So what

I drive a LOT, spending many, many hours each week behind <br />the wheel.<br /><br />I also listen to a LOT of music. My iTunes library has over 6500 <br />tracks in it (roughly 400 cd's) and every one of them is loaded <br />onto my iPod.<br /><br />Carrying the loaded iPod, I find to be both pleasurable and <br />practical, and it easily connects to my car's deck.<br /><br />Would I prefer carrying 400 cd's in my car? <br />No thanks!

[roar08]

Nobody cares

Trends in online music buying sum it up: noone cares if you buy <br />CDs, let alone where. If flurries of artists ceased to pad their albums <br />with filler content maybe, just maybe, more people would buy more <br />CDs than they do now. But in the end, the masses of the market <br />are king and the vast majority of people want products on their <br />terms. And iTunes gives them what they want.

[groink_hi]

If only numbers really mattered...

You must be the recipient of an ear transplant from a dog, or you're born with an extremely keen sense of hearing that keeps you awake at night.<br /><br />It has been proven that the typical human being cannot tell the difference in quality between an AAC file at 128kbps and a CD. Unless you're running equipment that run in the thousands of dollar (which IMHO is a social problem), it is virtually impossible to tell the two apart. The human ear can only hear so much.<br /><br />To boost this argument one notch further, there is evidence that a long-play vinyl record produces better quality than CDs. I don't see people buying LPs anymore. You would need a digital file the size of gigabytes to simulate a true sine wave generated by analog sound.<br /><br />The bottom line is this: We all know that fans of the digital age is sacrificing quality for convenience. I'm seeing people ripping Blu-Ray videos to RealVideo. CDs to MP3 and AAC. Flash video over DivX or MPEG-4. The very low percentage of folks who prefer the best quality is no longer the focus group. Convenience and content delivery to the masses - that is the focus group.

[shycelticwitch]

Duh

I suggest you invest in some better stereo equipment dude... Every <br />title I have downloaded from iTunes plays crystal clear on any of my <br />stereo devices...<br /><br />CD = scratches = skipping = poor quality sound

[tech_crazy]

You most probably don't care about audio quality

Well, then you probably have not done an A/B comparison between a CD and an mp3/iTunes song. Even at a 192 kbps sampling (compared to the common 128), the mp3s are vastly inferior to the uncompressed wavs.<br /><br />It doesn't matter what physical format is used - CD/DVD Audio or anything, the fact remains that MP3s etc. are lossy compressions. <br /><br />Combine that with the losses due to the cassette tape adapters/FM connectors or even line-in jacks that are used with most ipods/mp3 players. You have to hear it to believe it.<br /><br />As for the 650 CDs, a 260 GB hard drive should suffice to keep the songs as WAVs.<br /><br />It is hard to match the quality of CDs/WAVs combined with co-ax/optical connections. I am waiting for a portable player that provides digital out jacks.

[joythemechanicalboy]

please.

i love the sarcastic tone you take in replying to the guy who says itunes=low-fi. you scratch your cds and use that as evidence that compressed sound files sound better???!!! if you really think lossy files sound better than cd, i'd say you're the one who needs to upgrade their sound equipment.

[cyberDJ-2038765336053745013836]

Wasn't Apple...

...already the top on-line seller?<br /><br />Must be another slow news day.

[faceless128]

This is not...

...about the top online seller. It's about the top seller period. They were the top online, but behind several B&#38;M stores like Walmart before. Now they are #1.

[3tire]

well,

you could probably read the story before commenting. But you're right it was a slow newsday.

[roark1]

wasn't Apple...

Yea, they were the number one seller of online sales, number 2 <br />of All sales...now they are just plain number 1 of legal music <br />sales period. I bet the record companies who have been giving <br />Apple so much crap over their pricing practices are just freaking <br />out. It must be nice for all these record companies to get a <br />paycheck for doing nothing... no pressing, no jewel boxes, no <br />printing of CD sleeves, no shrink wrapping, no shipping costs... <br />but yet they still get paid for pimping the artists they don't <br />develop... <br /><br />by the way, if you're a independent musician ... check out <br />www.tunecore.com so you too can get placed in the largest <br />music selling store in the world. By pass the "man" and own <br />your own music. Just another way that Apple is helping artists <br />get paid.

[baconstang]

Totally!

The 128K conversions sound fine on lots of music. Especially those <br />that were made using synths/MIDI etc. The difference becomes <br />apparent with music that is more acoustic (real) in nature. I've <br />engineered a few dozen albums, so I'm not your average listener. <br />Still, 256K or higher works for my 55 year old ears on most any <br />kind of music.

[baconstang]

Now if Apple...

would come out with a 'pro' iPod. Big hard drive, and could handle <br />24bit at 96K or 192K......

[the_thoughtful_blogger]

The future begins with "i"

iTunes is just the beginning. The future begins with "i". Don't believe me? Jump into the time machine and take a sneek peek at the year 2021:<br /><br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://thethoughtfulblogger.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-year-2021.html" target="_newWindow">http://thethoughtfulblogger.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-year-2021.html</a>