Date: 02-28-2008
Apple’s iTunes outpaced music retailers Best Buy and Target to become the number two U.S. music retailer behind Wal-Mart, according to data released by tracking firm NPD Group. Unless the downward slide of CD sales is reversed, Apple will soon be number one, says Russ Crupnick, NPD Group’s president of music. Apple said that it had achieved staggering sales of about four billion songs via iTunes last year, and 50 million people have enrolled as its customers. About 1 million of those customers have stopped buying CDs, according to the NPD study. The research firm saw nearly 50% growth in digital downloading, and 10% of music was bought from legitimate online stores last year.
