iTunes - Number 2 Music Retailer in the United States
The Unofficial Apple Weblog, AppleInsider, and just about every other Apple news outlet out there are now reporting that iTunes has surpassed Best Buy to become the number two music retailer in the United States. Apple had held the number three spot since June, when it overtook Amazon.com. Apple’s online music offering now trails only brick-and-mortar powerhouse Wal-Mart in terms of overall music sales.
Me, I’m a little surprised that this hasn’t happened sooner. I stopped buying CDs on a regular basis about three or four years ago (I still pick up new NIN discs for nostalgia’s sake, but that’s about it, and I immediately rip them to my iMac anyway, then toss the CDs in the closet). The upsides of digital music distribution simply outweigh the downsides. Digital music files take up less space, require fewer physical resources to produce—Al Gore, that champion of inconvenient truths (also an Apple board member) would be proud—and, to my ear, sound just as damn good. Sure, I’d prefer my music to be DRM-free, but I’d rather have music that isn’t going to disappear on me when my daughter decides to color all over my CD collection, or to use the discs as miniature Frisbees.
How about you, Geek Forcers? Do you still buy CDs, or are you soldiers in the digital music revolution?
Comments On This Article
Mary Ann says:
Yes Chris, I would have to say that we too have “almost” entirely stopped buying CD’s. There are still a few artists that we just must have the actual CD in our hot little hands, but they are few and far between. However, we have not stepped into the rhelm of buying songs from itunes yet, we have had out ipods for 4 years now, and I think I have bought 1 song and 3 movies. So now where does our music come from?? Well, living in the great state of CT, anyone close to here will know and agree we have the worst radio stations ever. I have no idea what is new, or who the new artists are, so to even go into a best buy I would have no idea “who” to buy or “what” is good anymore. It is so sad to not be in the “loop” anymore. I can say that you are correct, the simplicity of downloading the song you want for 99 cents and having it available on demand is a wonderful thing instead of buying a CD for 18 bucks and only liking 3 songs...ugh...someday we will catch up with the rest of the world and let the downloading begin!
Bethany says:
I’m with Mary Ann, in that I occasionally buy a CD if there’s an artist I truly love or a collection I’m still… collecting. But otherwise it’s iTunes all the way. Now and again I’ll want something too obscure for that site, but I usually find a digital copy somewhere on the interwebs. Every time I buy a song for 99 cents I remember how expensive it used to be to buy a single on CD. Oh, who am I kidding. I mean on cassette. And sometimes on 45.
ChrisClark says:
Ah, the days of the cassingle… I had way more of those than any self-respecting geek ever should. Or, well, I had more of them from artists like the Spice Girls that any self-respecting geek ever should.
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