Survey: iTunes remains "best" music store, Amazon makes strong first showing

Jordan Golson — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:09:47 -0700

iTunes remains the "best" digital music store, showing strong gains year-over-year in awareness, usage, familiarity and "best brand" mentions in an Ipsos survey. Nearly every other music store dropped in the "best brand" rankings, with Napster, MySpace, Wal-Mart and Yahoo Music leading the way downward.

Only Rhapsody showed gains year-over-year thanks to extensive advertising and partnerships. Helping Rhapsody is the fact that it doesn't compete head-on with iTunes. Rhapsody is a monthly subscription service offering access to millions of songs for a recurring subscription fee. Much to my chagrin, Apple has thus far not introduced a subscription music service, despite rumors of such a program dating back quite a while.

Amazon's mp3 store, with a very strong brand behind it and DRM-free access to a ton of songs, made a strong first showing, grabbing 9% of the "best brand" rankings. The full chart is below.

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Survey: iTunes remains "best" music store, Amazon makes strong first showing