iTunes is #2!

It was only last June that Apple's iTunes moved into the Top Three music retailers in the country. Well, now according to Reuters, it's number two:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iTunes digital media store edged out Best Buy Co and Target Corp to become the second-largest U.S. music retailer, behind Wal-Mart Stores, according to data released on Tuesday from tracking firm NPD Group.

Back in June, we commented that at least one of the Top Three was primarily a music store. Since then, iTunes has begun selling a lot more TV shows and movies. Remember how it used to be called the iTunes Music Store? Now it's just the iTunes Store. Will music get less and less "shelf space" on the iTunes home page as sales of movies and TV shows become more profitable? We'll see.

More from the Reuters article:

The amount of music purchased by consumers rose 6 percent from a surge in digital music sales. But actual spending rates across the industry declined by 10 percent due to lackluster CD sales, dropping from about $44 per capita to $40 among Internet users.

About one million consumers stopped buying CDs in 2007, according to NPD.

So we're buying more music but spending less money. We're thrifty like a Dutch boy. Why pay more!