Apple ranks second in music sales

by Steve Ragan - Feb 27 2008, 16:27

Recent research from The NPD Group has shown that Wal-Mart is the leader when it comes to music sales in the U.S. followed closely by Apple’s iTunes.

Recent research from The NPD Group has shown that Wal-Mart is the leader when it comes to music sales in the U.S. followed closely by Apple’s iTunes. (IMG: Apple)

Apple moved up to number two in overall sales, beating out Best Buy and Target. The jump is good news for the company and another milestone passed, following on from overtaking Amazon last summer.NPD said that in 2007 the amount of music bought up by U.S. consumers shot up six percent, but with this increase consumers actually spent less on the music they bought. There was a reported ten percent drop in spending. This means that consumers spent about $40 per person, down from $44 in 2006.One million consumers left the physical CD market last year, led by forty-eight percent of the teenage market. Teens are the lifeblood of the music industry; they have equal, if not more, buying power than most other consumers. NPD says that almost half of the interviewed teens did not buy a single CD last year.Legal music downloads now account for ten percent of the music bought in the U.S.Apple said recently that there are now over fifty million iTunes Store customers. Sales wise, iTunes has sold over four billion songs, with an incredible twenty million on Christmas Day 2007 alone. In addition, they have the world's largest collection of music, six million tracks and growing.