WalMart remains in the second spot with 14 percent of music volume sold at their stores and website and Best Buy ranks third.

iTunes continues to cement its lead in the digital music arena, as consumer downloads from iTunes represented 69 percent of the digital music market in the first half of 2009 followed by AmazonMP3, a distant second at 8 percent. WalMart leads all sellers of CDs with a 20 percent share of the physical music market, followed by Best Buy at 16 percent and Target and Amazon tied at 10 percent each.The growth of legal digital music downloads, and Apples success in holding that market, has increased iTuness overall strength in the retail music category, said Crupnick.But the importance of the big box retailers shouldnt be dismissed, as long as the majority of music consumers continue to buy CDs.