iTunes Outsells Brick and Mortar Stores

Research firm NPD Group said Monday that Apple's iTunes Music Store broke into the top ten list of music retailers, marking the first time a digital music store has done so.

With the iPod still selling briskly and the holiday season now upon us, it is likely that Apple will increase its share of music sales even further and possibly rise higher in the rankings next quarter.

"The ongoing and growing popularity of Apple's iTunes Music Store now positions the company as a leading music retailer, and continues to legitimize legal digital music retailing," NPD music and movie industry analyst Russ Crupnick said.

According to Apple, the store has sold over 600 million songs, and is selling between 1.5 and 2 million songs per day.

The success of the iPod is also driving the entire market. The RIAA says that digital music made up four percent of all music sales in the first half of 2005.

The iTunes Music Store ranked seventh, beating out Tower Records, Sam Goody and Borders. To figure out how to rank digital music stores in the list, NPD uses an equivalency of 12 tracks per album to create the comparison.

Leading the chart was discount retailer Wal-Mart, followed by Best Buy, Target, Amazon.com, and FYE.

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