Amazon.com has claimed more than a fifth of the market for digital music downloads, though despite losing some ground Apple remains the dominant player in the market.
Research firm the NPD Group’s Annual Music Study found AmazonMP3 claimed a 22 per cent share of the market in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from 15 per cent in 2011 and 7 per cent in 2008.
“Amazon’s entry into tablets probably helped,” said Russ Crupnick, senior vice president, industry analysis, at NPD Group, told Reuters.
Amazon released updates to its Kindle Fire tablets – originally released in 2011 – last year, allowing them to play music directly purchased from AmazonMP3 and providing access to more than 18 million movies and books.
Though Apple’s iTunes store remains dominant with a 63 per cent market share, this is down from 68 per cent in 2011 and 69 per cent in 2009.
