According to a new analysis by The NPD Group, Amazon’s MP3 store is having little to no effect on the flourishing success of the iTunes store.
The study revealed that only a measly 10 percent of all Amazon MP3 users are iTunes converts and that the majority are new to direct digital downloads. NPD entertainment analyst Russ Crupnick feels that the report shows that the new stores don’t necessarily draw customers away from the behemoth that is iTunes.
Amazon currently sits in fourth among all US music sales and “claims just a tenth of the sales volume at its online store,” the study adds. Amazon is behind Best Buy, Wal-Mart and iTunes and will need to “significantly increase its digital sales rate to surpass the higher-ranked stores” reads the study.
Amazon has seen its store grow on a couple of chief principles. It sells some songs for cheaper (89 cents) than iTunes, all tracks are DRM-free, and the store can be accessed on any modern operating system.
Result for: MP3
France’s largest retailer, the Carrefour Group has announced that they will be launching a movie download service that will allow customers to buy or rent movies and TV episodes.
The Group operates supermarkets and grocery stores around Europe that carry DVDs but wants to “expand its focus on entertainment, bringing it closer to customers.”
Carrefour’s international non-food chief, Christophe Geoffroy, said the “shopping experience would be simple and fast, with downloads taking about 3 minutes,” probably meaning that most videos could be streamed. He also noted that VOD (video on demand) market in Europe was not currently great but growth was expected. He cited analyst research which predicts “Europe’s movie download market will be worth over about 690 Euros (over $1 billion) by 2011.”
The announcement follows Tescos similar announcement last week in which they launched a music and video download site focusing on MP3 albums.
Result for: MP3
Nokia is set to launch Australia’s first subscription music service tomorrow in an effort to use its huge music industry clout to knock Apples’ iTunes platform from the top.
The service however, should see issues as it has been revealed that songs bought from the store will be incompatible with the dominant market leader for portable media players, the Apple iPod.
Price could be another problem if you do not use the subscription plan, as each track will cost $1.70 and albums will sell for $17. However, for $10 a month, Nokia will “allow customers to stream an unlimited number of full-length tracks directly from a player built into its music store website.”
The songs can be downloaded via compatible Nokia phones or on the PC and then synced over. Nokia says the 5310, 5610, 5700, N78, N81, N82, N91, N95, N96 and N76 handsets are all compatible, and other phones will work as long as they support Windows Media Player.
All 2.5 million songs in the catalog will have WMA DRM which will restrict the use and distribution of the songs, going against the current trend of removing DRM from music offerings. The iPod does not support DRM infested WMA files and therefore will not play anything purchased from the store.
Karen Farrugia, Nokia Australia’s music services manager, noted that locking out iPod owners would limit potential target market but the company still hopes to topple iTunes.
“At this time we are launching Windows Media DRM-protected files and we will look in the future to introduce an MP3 service … we’re in discussions with labels to really work on that,” she said.
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