Since the iTunes launch in 2003, its song sales have rapidly grown year after year with its music sales recently overtaking Best Buy and Target. According to an independent study by the market research firm NPD Group, iTunes has finally overtaken Wal-Mart on music sales, making it the #1 music store in the US and also the first time a digital music download store has beaten the biggest CD retailers.
According to NPD, in January and February, Apple sold more albums than any other U.S. retailer, based on 12 singles sold being as the equivalent of one album sold. Since iTunes' launch five year ago, over 50 million customers have used the service and over 4 billion songs have been sold through iTunes.
At present, digital downloads still need to grow further before it reaches the point where more CDs are sold than digital downloads. While high street music retailers are suffering as a result of its customers buying online, Bookstores and Newspapers are also experiencing a similar issue with more consumers buying books online and advertisers and newspaper readers choosing to go online.
While NPD has not released any album sales figures per company, according to the current sales, after iTunes, Wal-Mart is #2, Best Buy is #3 and Amazon and Target tie at #4 as the leading US music retailers.
