Apple today announced that the iTunes Store surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*.
With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold over four billion songs and features the world’s largest music catalog of over six million songs.
“We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, in the press release. “We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone.”
*Based on data from market research firm the NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey that captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions. The iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the US based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Note:
The Apple iTunes Music Store Milestones:
• February 26, 2008: 4 billion songs sold.
• July 31, 2007: 3 billion songs sold.
• April 09, 2007: 2.5 billion songs sold.
• January 09, 2007: 2 billion songs sold.
• February 23, 2006: 1 billion songs sold.
• February 7, 2006: 950 million songs sold.
• January 9, 2006: 850 million songs sold.
• October 25, 2005: Available in Australia.
• August 4, 2005: Available in Japan.
• July 17, 2005: 500 million songs sold.
• May 10, 2005: 400 million songs sold. Custom stores for music fans in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
• January 24, 2005: 250 million songs sold.
• December 16, 2004: 200 million songs sold.
• December 2, 2004: Available in Canada.
• October 26, 2004: Available to music lovers in the European Union.
• October 14, 2004: 150 million songs sold.
• July 12, 2004: 100 million songs sold.
• June 15, 2004: Available in UK France Germany.
• April 28, 2004: 70 million songs sold.
• March 15, 2004: 50 million songs sold.
• December 15, 2003: 25 million songs sold.
• October 16, 2003: Available for windows. 13 million songs sold.
• September 8, 2003: 10 million songs sold.
• June 23, 2003: 5 million songs sold.
• May 14, 2003: 2 million songs sold.
• May 5, 2003: One million songs sold.
• April 28, 2003: Launched in United States.
OH JOY !!!
so much for digital downloads , eh ?
I don’t know, the slope is decreasing.
time for some M$ fud to be thrown around.
I guess the zune is starting to hurt the ipod.
oh no oh no
>>October 26, 2004: Available to music lovers in the European Union
should be: Available to some music lovers in the European Union. There is still no iTunes store is many EU countries
It’s time for someone to trot out the ‘iTunes is killing Main Street’ argument, forcing all those small (and large) music store to shutter.
(Hey, they do it to Wal-Mart…)
The 4 B mark was reached in Dec 2007. Still the trend is not accelerating
One data point does not make a trend. Sure it took one month more to sell a billion songs than the previous period, but who cares — just the record labels. . .
Yeah the trend is worrying – going from an exponential growth to just a linear one
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The record labels passed some gas recently about how Amazon was #2. It’s amusing to see the NPD report placing them at #4… and dropping…
blame the industry for producing UTTER crap
not apple
they only work with what they’re given
did ya see the other day – mariah carey with 17 number ones – beating elvis !!!
and 3 behind The beatles !!
WTF !!??
i rest my case
modern music sucks
Now if they continue to convert to 256 AAC I’ll be happier. 128 AAC doesn’t cut it for me. Sorry.
Now that we got number one in music with iTunes, it’s time to do the same in applications with AppStore. And all the rest will follow…
I’d like to see Walmart’s numbers added to the above chart in order to compare their growth with that of Apple’s.
I bet my aunt and uncle on that Apple Cider doesn’t actually hear the difference between 128 AAC and 256 AAC.
@MK
Maybe it’s the EU countries of 2004, more countries in th union now.
Big fat hairy deal. Zune Marketplace is poised to crush the I-Tunes store and free music lovers of Apple’s proprietary music with Microsoft’s wonderful offerings and magnificent exclusive offers. You’ll see.
Your potential. Our passion.™
With numbers like these, the labels continue to try and destroy iTunes/Apple with backhanded deals. I’m shocked that Zune Moronstore hasn’t cut sleazy deal with them already.
Interesting Note: MDN’s Chart when flipped upside down, closely models the trajectory of a chair flying across the room in Steve Ballmer’s office.
Congrats to Eddy and everyone at iTunes on becoming number one. Well done Apple! You’ve worked hard to get there, you’ll need to work harder to stay there.
“I’m shocked that Zune Moronstore hasn’t cut sleazy deal with them already.”
And you won’t, because Microsoft doesn’t do business like Apple does. Sleazy, underhanded, manipulative and criminally monopolistic practices as well as fear mongering and format lock-in strategies might be in the Apple playbook but not in Microsoft’s. Redmond will proudly let consumer-focused quality rule the day while Apple wallows in the gutter. Think different, MAC sheep.
Your potential. Our passion.™
“Redmond will proudly let consumer-focused quality rule the day while Apple wallows in the gutter. Think different, MAC sheep.”
If Vista was the result of consumer-focused quality, I’d like to mee the blind person they used for their QA when they worked on the GUI.
“Sleazy, underhanded, manipulative and criminally monopolistic practices as well as fear mongering and format lock-in strategies might be in the Apple playbook but not in Microsoft’s. “
Um, you ARE looking at Microsoft’s playbook. Ballmer simply slapped one of those Apple decals on the front so it doesn’t look like he owns it.
Microsoft is to computers as ebola is to monkeys™.
To Bluestreak:
Re: Zune Tang
With all due respect, please note what just happened:
“modern music sucks”
And Britney makes approximately $958 per hour, every hour of every day whether she’s working, passed out, running over someone or ordering drive-thru food for her entourage. She could spend an hour in the crapper and come out $1,000 ahead.
Wow.
Does anyone think Apple hits the 200 million ipod mark this time next year?
Maybe sooner?
I like that the plot that MDN made was done in Numbers and not Excel!
Apple reported that it had reached four billion sometime late in the first quarter of this financial year and it’s logged in my Excel spreadsheet as 25/12/07 which was the last real day of that quarter.
In fact, Apple are far closer to 5 billion than 4 billion as we speak – I’m estimating they’re anywhere between 4.6 and 4.75 billion to be more precise.