The record industry is dying because everyone steals music off the internet! Er, maybe not. According to Reuters, iTunes has become the second biggest music retailer in the country, behind only Wal-Mart. According to the report, compiled by the NPD Group, legal downloads accounted for 10% of all music “acquired” in the US last year (whether that means sold or obtained, I’m not too sure). The amount of music purchased actually increased 6%, but “actual spending rates across the industry declined by 10 percent due to lackluster CD sales, dropping from about $44 per capita to $40 among Internet users,” Reuters reports. This could be due to a lot of things, such as stores like Best Buy and Target devoting more resources to selling their other wares instead of CDs, or maybe that music is a hell of a lot cheaper on iTunes. It’s hard to believe that the masses will be flocking to spend $16 on the new John Tesh CD, just to throw away the physical copy after they put it on their iPod.
In other news, Wal-Mart is the number one music retailer in the country. Ew.
2 Comments »
The fact that Wal-Mart and iTunes are the two biggest music retailers makes me feel even more okay with downloading stuff for free off the internet.
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Comment by John B. — February 26, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
I purchase all my music exclusively on iTunes, eMusic, or on artists’ websites. The ease of use with my iPod, combined with the good price, make it an obvious choice and better than wasting time with bad downloads.