iTunes gets even stronger

Two years ago, Apple became the biggest retailer in the music industry, knocking Wal-Mart off its perch. Since then, there hasn’t been a lot of digging into how big the company has become.  

Billboard’s latest figures, however, show that Apple’s market share in the music industry now stands at 26.7 percent. That’s over 5 points better than two years ago and more than double where it stood in 2007. Wal-Mart, meanwhile, is seeing its share of the market dwindle – falling from 15 percent to 12.5 percent. Best Buy came in third, with 8.7 percent.

The big box retailers are reducing the floor space they dedicate to music, which is part of the reason for the decline. Both are showing a growing interest in the video game space these days (an interesting move, since a digital revolution is brewing in that category as well).

The growing dominance by Apple, though, continues to hobble the company as it tries to break into other entertainment fields – and is part of the reason networks and studios are taking such a hardline approach in their negotiations with the company. Once it has redistribution rights to the content under its terms, Apple grows at a tremendous rate. But as it grows, those content providers become increasingly dependent on it.