iTunes is biggest US music retailer

According to recent figures from NPD MusicWatch revealed by Ars Technica, Apple has become the leading music retailer in the US, overtaking Wal-Mart for the first time. Another interesting statistic from the report is that one-in-four music sales in the US are now in the form of paid downloads: 70.9 per cent of music sold is in physical formats while 29.1 per cent is digital – while that may seem quite low, it has increased from a much lower figure in the past. Many customers prefer physical formats for music because the quality is lossless and there is no DRM attached. However, with iTunes Plus DRM-free 256kbps songs, I am more tempted to go for digital – it’s just much easier and quicker to download a song than having to buy a physical disc, especially if you’re only going to listen to it on your iPod.

Via [Macworld UK]