The Apple iTunes online store is now officially the second biggest music retailer in the US, according to a study by NPD Group reported by Information Week.
Only discount retail giant Wal-Mart topped iTunes. The Apple digital music retailer now has more than 50 million customers, boasts a catalog of more than 6 million songs, and has sold more than 4 billion songs.
NPD Group says legal music downloads now account for 10% of the music acquired in the United States, but a sharp drop in CD sales meant overall spending on music in the US dropped by around 10%.
As a result, the overall portion of music acquisition that consumers actually paid for fell to 42% in 2007 from 48% in 2006.
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