iTunes moves up to third largest music retailer

Apple’s iTunes Store is widely known as the largest ‘online’ music retailer, however, according to a report from market research firm NPD, the increasingly popular iTunes Store recently overtook Amazon in overall music sales – which considers all retailers including traditional brick and mortar stores – taking the third position with 9.8 percent market share behind leaders Wal-Mart and Best Buy, with 15.8 and 13.8 percent respectively.

Physical CD sales still dominate the music scene with 86.2 percent of all sales, but as online music retailers keep gaining ground, the gap continues closing rapidly. Online music sales may also receive a boost if the DRM-free trend proves successful and lucrative to major music labels still waiting to make a move.

According to NPD, iTunes Store benefited from high iPod sales during the holiday season, seeing that the vast majority of digital songs and albums bought on iTunes will only play on iPods as well as the iTunes application.