Music store traffic rises 50% on Christmas

The iTunes Music Store and other digital music sites saw a spike in traffic on Christmas Day as hundreds of thousands of consumers looked to download tracks for their new iPods that they received as gifts. According to numbers from online researcher Hitwise, visits to music download sites saw a 50 percent increase between December 24 and 25. Hitwise also found that visits to music sites were 15 percent higher than last Christmas. “Apple’s iTunes Music Store increased its dominance of the download market, receiving twice as many visits as its next closest rival, Sony’s Connect internet site,” reports the Financial Times. “This compares with Christmas Day last year, when iTunes was only 10 percent ahead of its then closest competitor, Napster.”