New figures released by market research group NPD show the iTunes music store now controls over 66% of the digital music market. This represents an increase from 63.2% in the same quarter last year, with the closest competitor, Amazon, holding just 13.3% of the market. However, sources have told the Boy Genius Report that the gap could be even larger, pinning iTunes at a 90% share.
This comes even though Amazon is selling digital music at far cheaper prices than iTunes, with an average album sale of $US9.99 compared to Apple’s $US14.99.
Pete Baltaxe, director of Amazon’s digital music store, said the company’s store and its daily deals program was still, “a great way to get people excited about trying Amazon… If you look across the board, we have been very competitive on price”.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
