Apple is first music retailer in the US, launches TV shows in Germany

Apple has reached the first spot of the U.S.A. music retailers in January and February 2008, according to a recent NPD study.

Apple's online store, iTunes which launched in April 2002, or almost five years ago, now holds 19% of the U.S. music market. That includes both online and physical music sales. Wal-Mart has now the second spot online while Target and Amazon are 3rd and fourth.

iTunes has sold over four billion songs since its launch and currently has over 50 million customers worldwide. It offers over 6 million tracks and a growing portion of them comes without DRMs.

By the way, Apple is also the biggest music retailer worldwide, considering the U.S. music market is the biggest in the world.

Apple also started selling TV shows in Germany on Thursday. The company has been selling TV shows in the U.S. and U.K. for several months.