iTunes kept from No 1 spot by the Wall

It may seem like it’s been around for ever, but in only five short years iTunes has become the second-biggest music retailer in the US. According to a new survey by NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey, the only retailer to out-muscle iTunes in 2007 was Wall-Mart, aka HD DVD killer.

Apple’s journey into the top three US retailers has come of the back of worldwide take-up of the service, mainly due to the phenomenal success of the iPod. But this is not to downplay what has been achieved in terms of brokering deals with the major record house – not an easy thing to do.

MyTake – iTunes is everywhere and if you think about the power of what is a solid distribution model, Apple are in a pretty sweet spot. In addition, not only do they have a great distribution model, it’s a model that gives you what you want, when you want AND it’s customisable. Thinking about the true nature of content sharing, iTunes is the perfect personal content aggregator, only it’s not run by a (ro)bot, it’s run by you.