Amazon: Big River

Not content with drone delivery and items arriving before you’ve even ordered them, Amazon evidently has its eyes on the prize as it overtakes Apple’s music sales in the UK and makes a move into selling festival tickets.

According to statistics in the BPI Yearbook, Amazon was the largest music retailer in the UK last year, taking 27% of all spending across physical and digital sales in the UK in 2014, with iTunes on 26.7%.

9.9% of this was through Amazon’s digital store in 2014, with the remaining 17.1% coming through home delivery.

Find our more and see some colourful market share pie charts at Music Business Worldwide.

In related news, Amazon local will now sell tickets to gigs and festivals alongside West End Theatre shows. Tickets for shows such as Bestival and Tom Jones are now on-sale with no booking fees.

General Manager of Amazon Local UK Geraldine Wilson said: “We wanted to offer a convenient way for Amazon customers to book tickets to a wide selection of music, theatre and comedy events around the UK in a few clicks”.

Wilson continued: “To build trust it was paramount that we provided transparent pricing from the start with no hidden extras at the checkout which customers told us can be really off-putting and confusing”.