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First by reason of alphabetic primacy is Amazon’s MP3 download store. This branch of their $13-billion-a-year online retail business was launched in the U.S. back in September of 2007, jumping straight into the #2 slot behind iTunes in the digital download market.

Market analysts NPD report them as having roughly 8% of the U.S. digital download market, and they’ve successfully launched in the UK, Germany and France since then. Concentrating on the States for the time being, the overall digital music market is reported as being worth 36% of overall music sales at a massive USD$1,783,300,000, making Amazon’s 8% share worth $142,664,000. A small part of their $19 billion a year’s worth of total sales, but still a big force in the market, and one with a massive user base making a presence on Amazon a serious part of a coherent music marketing structure.

Amazon offers a fully DRM free catalogue from all the majors and a growing number of independent labels, a lower per-track price than iTunes, and a higher bit rate on downloaded tracks. They are also introducing an on-spec CD manufacture service, whereby artists can upload music files and artwork in order to have physical discs manufactured for sale through the Amazon retail site, alongside the same tracks in the Amazon MP3 store.