iTunes may be the number one US music retailer, but Amazon boss Jeff Bezos thinks he has the Apple service beat in terms of album sales.
Bezos talked business with Fortune this week, it's a wide-ranging chat that covers many of the bases of the giant online retailers international operations and his near-death experience during a fated helicopter ride. And includes the Amazon boss' claim that his MP3 service outsells Apple, at least when it comes to album sales, at least proportionally.
An Amazon spokesman explains: "One exec I know at a big label, who asked to remain anonymous, says he's excited by one trend in particular: At Apple''s iTunes store, two thirds of the music sold is single tracks and one third is albums. But at Amazon, two thirds of the music sold is albums and one third is tracks."
The Amazon boss is otherwise reluctant to talk about Apple, but with recent data revealing just 10 per cent of Amazon's MP3 customers are former iTunes users, and with the company reportedly selling a fraction of the quantity of music sold by Apple's service, the proportional difference may mean very little in terms of sales numbers and revenue.
That Apple seems on track to seize 28 per cent of the global music market by 2012 was also recently indicated by In-Stat Research.
Take a look at the Fortune interview here.
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Comments
isn't that because they sell
isn't that because they sell physical cds (which is an album)? how many albums or music in general do they sell digitally only?
Amazon vs. Apple
I think Apple will prevail due to ease of use. This is not the HD-DVD and BlueRay battle.
It could just as well be
It could just as well be Amazon isn't picking up as much single sales, giving the ratio. Lies damned lies and statistics. Till you get numbers and pin down what's being counted and what isn't, it doesn't mean jack.
Amazon mp3
The only reason I've downloaded from Amazon mp3 is because Apple didn't offer a 256k version of the song on iTunes. All things equal, I prefer to download off of iTunes.
1/3 of a very large number
1/3 of a very large number is not smaller than 2/3 of a much smaller number. But I'm sure you knew that.
indeed
Hi Tim
You're dead right, as said: "and with the company reportedly selling a fraction of the quantity of music sold by Apple's service, the proportional difference may mean very little in terms of sales numbers and revenue."
Amazon beating iTunes? BOY
Amazon beating iTunes? BOY IS THAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Jeff here is really lying to himself!
Hot Air
This is all hot air from Amazon. I wonder if they could bottle it and help reduce their carbon BOOTPRINT!
Ordered some stuff from Amazon UK a couple of weeks ago, the box they shipped it in was 95% packaging and air-filled cushioning bags. It would EASILY have fitted into a padded envelope, which would have fitted through my letterbox, and prevented me from having to drive 3 mile round trip to the post office to pick up a package!!!