Amazon moves into second spot behind iTunes

When Amazon announced its DRM-free music store, some people wondered what kind of impact it would have on

Apple's iTunes

revenue. And with the announcement on Wednesday that it has officially moved into the second spot for most digital music sales, it looks like that question has been answered.

Amazon's DRM-free MP3 store has become the world's second most popular digital music retailer in just six months of operation. And although some have said that Amazon's success can be traced back to its status as one of the main shopping destinations on the web, the company is quick to point to its DRM-free library as the main reason.

No word on how many songs were sold

Amazon's director of digital music, Pete Baltaxe, declined to say how many songs the company has sold in the past six months, but did say that customers are extremely happy with how things are going. "What we hear a lot is, 'Thank you.' They appreciate that everything is DRM-free and so comprehensive," he said.

Amazon still has work to do if it wants to catch up to Apple. According to Nielsen SoundScan, about 239 million digital songs were sold in the past year and iTunes accounts for 80 per cent of those sales. Realising that, Amazon may not want to pop the champagne just yet.