Apple Now Top U.S. Music Retailer

Market numbers from NPD Group show that iTunes has surpassed Wal-mart as the top music retailer in the United States.

New music sales figures for January and February of 2008 from market research firm NPD show that Apple has become the top music retailer in the United States, taking over the top slot from Wal-mart. According to NPD, some 19 percent of music sold in the United States during January and February of 2008 went to iTunes, while Wal-mart accounted for 15 percent of all domestic music sales. Best Buy took third place, with Amazon.com and Target tied for fourth place.

The news comes barely a month after NPD’s MusicWatch survey found that iTunes was the U.S.’s second largest music retailer for 2007. The new number one ranking applies to the first two months of 2008.

“We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world,” said Apple’ VP for iTunes Eddy Cue, in a statement. “We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone.”

The numbers may mark a milestone for digital music sales; iTunes sells only digital versions of music, whereas Wal-mart, Target, and Best Buy offer both physical and digital music sales. However, the rankings are at best approximations, working on the assumption that the sale of 12 digital singles is equivalent to the sale of a physical album. Apple claims to have sold over 4 billion songs to over 50 million customers since launching in April 2003.

Industry watchers speculate whether Apple will be able to hold on to the top ranking throughout the rest of 2008, since iTunes’ sales in early 2008 were likely buoyed by customers redeeming gift cards received during the holiday season.