“A new NPD Group study finds that the gap between paid music downloads and files acquired through peer-to-peer networks remains large,” eMarketer reports. “Apple still dominates the US market, accounting for 70% of revenues in the paid music downloading industry. Napster comes in a distant second with 11%, followed by MusicMatch, RealNetwork and Wal-Mart, all with 6%. Wal-Mart is one of the newer entrants into the business, but they already have captured a decent chunk of market share thanks to their $0.88 downloads ($0.10 less than the others) and WalMart’s well known brand name.”
“Among these services, iTunes was the first out of the gate to sell single song downloads, and has profited from that early start, as well as an easy interface and the popularity of its sister product, the iPod digital music player. Digital music players, many of which are tied to certain services, are a major factor in the success of a paid music downloading service. Of course, these digital music players can also be used to play MP3s that are acquired, almost always illegally, through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks,” eMarketer reports.
Full article here.
Real has only 6%? OMG! With all the hoopla, promises, brags, and insults thrown to Apple and the iTunes store, this statistic should just about finish them off!
Of those download services listed (Apple, Napster, MusicMatch, RealNetwork, and Wal-Mart), only Apple has a profitable business model: break even (or profit slightly) on music downloads, and bring in the billions in iPod sales. The others will fail unless they come up with a profitable plan.
I wonder why Microsoft’s lovely music service isn’t mentioned in this article. Is its market share just lost in roundoff error?
“Digital music players, many of which are tied to certain services […]”
Well, I suppose this sentence is correct…
Many (like more than half) of the Digital music players sold are tied to iTMS–at least for convenient purchase…
Sum Yung Gai, I don’t think MS’s service was even operational at the time these numbers were compiled. Don’t worry, next time round, MS will have 1 or 2% of the market. With Apple still dominant @ 70+ %.
BuyMusic, where art thou? Sony Connect, what happened?
Thats right – 6%! When we started we had zero percent. Our numbers are going up! Plus, we are ahead of BuyMusic and Sony.
Apple had 100% of the market when they started and they are already down to 70% in two years time.
I warned your boy Jobs about customer choice and he has last 30% of the market to others.
I don’t type well – I meant to say Jobs has LOST 30% of the market to my company and others.
those fat fingers are a bitch, eh rob?
I love how 6% of market share is decent for Wal-mart in the music downloads arena, but 4-5% is horrible for Apple when talking about Mac marketshare.
LOL!
Rob your such a lllllllllllooooooooooooossssssssseeeeeeeeerrrrr!
Your’e pathetic.
Well, at least someone else has finally made it into double figures. Looks like the competition are closing the gap now
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
“MP3s that are acquired, almost always illegally, through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks”
Most of my mp3’s are legally ripped from my own CD collection! Not every mp3 is illegal!!
Every single one of my MP3s is legal: either ripped from my own CD or a free (legitimate) download from a band’s own web site.