Digital Music Increases Share of Overall Music Sales Volume in the U.S.

From NPD this morn­ing:

Accord­ing to NPD MusicWatch, when it comes to the unit-sales vol­ume of music sold at retail – includ­ing paid dig­i­tal music down­loads and CDs – Apple iTunes leads in the U.S. with 25 per­cent of music units sold, which is up from 21 per­cent in 2008 and 14 per­cent in 2007. Wal­mart (includ­ing Wal­mart, Walmart.com, Wal­mart Music Down­loads) remains in sec­ond posi­tion with 14 per­cent of music vol­ume sold at their stores and Web sites with Best Buy ranked third.

via Dig­i­tal Music Increases Share of Over­all Music Sales Vol­ume in the U.S. .

This is where we are start­ing to see the trou­ble of Apple’s dom­i­nance in the mar­ket. Com­pe­ti­tion is impor­tant. Com­pe­ti­tion dri­ves inno­va­tion. Apple, of all com­pa­nies needs com­peti­tors. But the dom­i­nance in the mar­ket of iTunes and the iPod/iPhone is killing it. I want the Palm Pre to suc­ceed on the mer­its. I want Ama­zon to be a killer dig­i­tal music store (it’s on the way). I believe Apple’s prod­ucts and store ecosys­tem are best-of-breed right now. But they can be beat. What is scar­ing me most about the cur­rent state of the dig­i­tal music mar­ket is that before long, the most cre­ative among us may just stop trying.