Even with the issue still nudging the legal system, thanks to the music industry’s continuing pursuit of peer-to-peer file swapping networks, at least one new research study suggests interest in buying music online may be fading a bit.
NPD Group says Apple’s iTunes Music Store remains the king of the pay-for-play online music world but paying customers overall in cyberspace dropped from 1.3 million, an April peak, to shy of a million customers a month in May, June, and July.
But NPD said that drop may be what you should have expected with the end of a number of promotional and special pricing offers by new services launching in that timeframe or just before it.
"Our research suggests that at this stage of the business it's not so much about building share as it is about creating demand for paid downloads," said NPD vice president Russ Crupnick.
Apple’s iTunes still commands almost 70 percent of the legal music download market through July, NPD said. The resurrected Napster – once the granddaddy of P2P and revived as a pay-to-play service – has 11 percent, and MusicMatch, RealNetworks, and Wal-Mart Stores have six percent each.
