Apple and their vast catalogue of music available via iTunes is the number one way to purchase digital music in America, and the latest numbers from the NPD Group show that the Cupertino based firm has 66.2% of the market. To shed some light on how massive that truly is, the second largest player is Amazon and they’ve got only 13.3% of the market to themselves even though they often sell the same albums at a lower price. Living in Europe, I find it hilarious that people are still buying music track by track. Since joining Spotify this summer I’ve literally stopped pirating music. Thanks to the iPhone application (also available for Android, Windows Phone 7, and Symbian) I can both stream and download as much music as I want for just 10 Euros per month. The library is huge, the ability to share playlists have let me discover more music during the past few months than I have in years, and the sound quality is a stellar 320 kbps. Sadly, the service has yet to launch in America, and they’ve been trying to launch it on the other side of the pond for what feels like forever.
Worry not, if you’re looking to enjoy an unlimited amount of music then there are plenty of streaming services in the states, with Google recently showing off MOG during their Chrome OS demo. It’s $10 per month, you can use it on your iPhone or Android powered smartphone, and there’s over 9 million tracks. Then there’s also Napster, Rhapsody, and I’m sure there are others, just ask around. All of these services need a monthly fee to keep on working, but so what? If you listen to an hour or music a day then you’re getting incredible value. Chances are you already stream your videos and you read news on the internet, so why do you want to “own” your music?
[Via: The Wall Street Journal]