iTunes sales growth

Analysis of Apple's iTunes Music Store sales by research firm Piper Jaffray reveals strong growth year over year, contradicting recent reports that iTunes sales may be plummeting. "From January to September in 2005 Apple sold 10.4 million songs per week and in 2006 that number was up 78 percent to 18.5 million songs per week over the same 9-month period," said Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster. Noting that iTunes sales usually peak after the holiday shopping season and decelerate slightly throughout the year, the analyst expects another strong upturn this January. "We continue to believe the shift to online distribution of media is in its infancy. We estimate 5 percent of worldwide music sales were online in 2006."

Piper Jaffray analyzed iTunes music sales data, discovering strong year over year growth in 2005 and 2006, comparing total sales between January and September of 2005 and 2006. "In the month of January 2005 the store's songs-per-day average was up 58 percent sequentially and in February 2006 (the closest data point year over year) the store's songs-per-day average was up 51 percent sequentially," Munster said, attributing the post-holiday growth to new iPod owners and iTunes gift card users. "We expect another uptick in early 2007. After strong post-holiday sales the weekly run-rate decelerated in both 2005 and 2006 (down 5 percent in 2005 and down 27 percent in 2006), which we view as a regular seasonal pattern."

by MacNN Staff