Apple Investigating Backdating of iTunes Press Releases
by John Paczkowski
Posted on April 3, 2008 at 3:00 PM PT
It’s likely an anomaly inspired by iTunes gift cards doled out over the holidays, but according to a Jan. 8, 2008 NPD Group Music Survey leaked to Ars Technica, Apple (AAPL) surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one retailer of music in the the US. Quite an achievement. A short-lived one, though. Let’s not forget that Apple was the number 2 music retailer in the US as of Feb. 26, 2008.
UPDATE: Well, what do you know. Apple was the number one music retailer in the US in January. And it was the number one music retailer in February as well, despite its “we’re #2 proclamations. This according to a press release issued by the company this afteroon, in which Apple said it has bested Wal-Mart for the top music retailer spot, based on the latest data from the NPD Group.
Apple offered the news with a bit of a reality-distorted caveat, though. The latest NPD Group data to which it refers was culled from the research outfit’s MusicWatch survey which “captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions.”
As of this writing 8 of Wal-Mart’s 10 top-selling CDs contain more than 12 tracks, including one that boasts 22.
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