Underdogs Amazon, Target take aim at iTunes, Walmart

NEW YORK (Billboard) - As music retailers suffer ever shrinking sales, some of the most aggressive moves to boost business are being made by the perpetual runners-up in their respective sectors.

The past year has seen heightened competitive positioning between Apple's iTunes store and Amazon for digital sales and Walmart and Target for CD sales. In both instances the latter merchant is bringing the fight to their larger competitor. Amazon batters iTunes daily with pricing promotions like the Daily Deal, while Target recently used huge marketing spending to challenge Walmart's dominance in country music.

AMAZON VS. ITUNES

The Amazon MP3 store's roughly 1.3% share of the U.S. music account base in 2009 (part of Amazon's overall 7.1% share) was dwarfed by market leader iTunes, which held a commanding 26.7% of the market, according to Billboard estimates. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BC0M320101213

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