Apple owns 75 percent of the digital music market but apps are where the growth is

Asymco analyst Horace Dediu has estimated that iTunes accounts for three-quarters of all digital music sales – $6.9b a year out of a total market of around $9.3b. He also noted that Apple had substantially exceeded his own expectations in video sales, with total sales to date of 380m movies and a cool 1b TV shows, but apps were where the real growth was seen … 

The overall picture of iTunes is becoming clearer every day. We have more information about number of users (575 million), what they spend on media and software and services ($20 billion/yr.) and, increasingly what they spend on each media type (about $9/yr on Software, $2/yr on books, $16/yr on apps $12/yr on music and $4/yr on video.)

The per-user figures for music are quite surprising. Twelve bucks a year is only just over one album a year. Since I’m guessing those of us who buy music through iTunes typically spend rather more than that (ahem), that leaves a fair number of users who buy nothing.

That users spend more on apps than music these days is probably less surprising, but does show just how much the market has changed since Apple started what it originally intended to be a break-even business designed to boost hardware sales, Tim Cook reporting that Apple has now paid developers a total of $10b. And these days, there truly is an app for everything …

(Via AllThingsD.)