In January Apple was the #1 music seller in the US. In Feb, however, Wal-Mart reclaimed their spot at the top according to Ars Technica.
The reason for the spike in Jan. can most likely be attributed to customers redeeming iTunes gift cards that they received at Christmas.
What’s extremely interesting about this, though, is not that Apple beat Wal-Mart for one month.
Apple had 19% of the market, Wal-Mart had 15%, Best Buy had 13%, and Amazon only had 6%. Those numbers are very compelling because they show us the difference in percentage of the top 4 music retailers. Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Apple are all neck and neck. In January, at least, Apple had a commanding lead. Amazon, on the other hand, has a lot of catching up to do, even with its large DRM-free library.
If things continue at the pace they are now, don’t be surprised to see Apple overtake Wal-Mart permanently sometime in 2008.
2 thoughts on “Apple is the #1 music retailer in the US…no wait…nevermind”
Spoke a little too soon. Apple is the #1 music retailer in the US. Their PR posted an article about it a few hours ago.
One thing I don’t get is the guy they quoted said it was the number one music retailer in the world. Now as much as I’d like that I highly doubt it. Maybe the number 1 online music retailer.