Data collected from over 12,000 consumer surveys for NPD’s Annual Music Study 2012 reveals that Apple’s iTunes holds the majority 64% share in the digital music market. The study also reveals that almost 80% of people who buy music online, bought music from iTunes in the previous quarter. Trailing in second place in AmazonMP3 with just 22% market share. 44 million Americans have bought at least one song or album last year, this number is consistent with past sales, despite the fact that music streaming services such as Pandora are becoming hugely popular.
iTunes has phenomenally progressed over the past decade. At first it was just a tool for iPod users so that they could manage their music, but it slowly and gradually grew to become what it is today. Apple recently announced that iTunes sold its 25 billionth song, and just to give you an idea how iTunes has gained popularity so fast, 15 billion of these total downloads were made in last three years alone. Digital music sales around the world bring in about $5.5 billion and it can safely be said that iTunes is the source of majority of that revenue.