When Napster and Kazaa began the peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing on their respective systems, record publishers and stores saw a decrease in the amount of music they were selling through retailers. Industry red flags went up in the air, followed by criminal and civil lawsuits.
The internet and the ability to fulfill an instant demand have certainly changed the tried-and-true way the media moguls had once solely depended on. You would have thought that these enterprise operations would have had enough forethought to see this trend coming prior to being caught with their pants down, but they didn't.
The NPD Group, a market research group based out of Port Washington, New York, has released a list of the top ten music retailers and for the first time 2 of those retailers are based off the internet. Apple's iTunes enters the list for the first time in the number seven spot, while Amazon.com retains its fourth place finish.
It's interesting to note that popular retailers such as Tower Records, Sam Goody and Borders have been edged out by the iTunes newcomer. The top three still remain untouched in the order of Walmart, Best Buy and Target.
What's in the future in this particular market? For those companies who have encountered a slip in their position might just get the notion that internet sales of their musical products may need more emphasis than it currently has. We might also see the alternative if sales continue to slump and that would be to drop the product line and put the emphasis elsewhere.
About The Author:
Dan Robins is the webmaster of CRNH.COM Computer Reviews News and Hardware, an online RSS news aggregator that offers thousand of computer related news stories.
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_16616_45.html
