iTunes Now Number Two Music Retailer in the US

I read about this on MacDailyNews which also has a listing of notable iTunes Store events, such as when Apple hit 1-billion sold, 2-billion, sold, etc.

For example, iTunes Store was launched in April 2003, just less than five years ago. It took one year to sell 70-million songs. Two full years to hit 400-million songs, and not quite three years to hit a billion songs sold.

From one billion to two billion was a little more than 10 months. From two billion to three billion was about seven months, and from three billion to four billion was also seven months.

Therefore, from two billion to four billion, iTunes Store sales are basically stagnant.

I wouldn’t call it stagnant.  It might be slower because of the economy but it is still gaining momentum. Plus the DRM war of Universal and others toward iTunes might be slowing sales. It is hard to tell though.

Based on those numbers, there has been NO growth rate increase over the past couple of years for iTunes Store music sales. If it took 7 months to go from 2 billion to 3 billion and another 7 months to go from 3 billion to 4 billion in sales, then that’s pretty much stagnant.

The real question is why?

Over that two year period Apple probably sold nearly 80-million new iPods but did not see a corresponding increase in iTunes Store music sales.

Could it be that Apple is being slowed down by non-DRM music sales from Amazon and other sites?

Well iTunes music sale just announced iTunes Store - five billion sold and counting.