OPINION: Disc changer
By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 4/4/2008
APRIL 4 | The music retailing industry passed a major milestone last week when Apple’s iTunes Music Store surpassed Wal-Mart as the nation’s largest music seller.
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda
According to NPD Research, Apple sold more albums in January and February than any other U.S. retailer, whether bricks-and-mortar or virtual, whether CD or download.
Although bricks-and-mortar retailers as a group still dominate music sales, and CD sales still outpace downloads, the gaps are closing, putting ever more pressure on traditional CD retailers.
“If you look at what is happening to the CD and the growth of the digital side, it's a pattern that is going to hold,” NPD analyst Russ Krupnick told the Los Angeles Times.
So far, movie downloads have not impacted bricks-and-mortar DVD retailers to the same degree iTunes has hurt record shops.
But that doesn’t mean digital technology will not bring changes to the business of DVD retailing. New distribution strategies and new modes of retailing are just now bubbling to the surface, bringing with them varying implications for traditional video retailers.
Read the full story at Content Agenda.com.
