Another year, another record: Apple is king of the online music market these days, as it managed to top all U.S. retailers in terms of sales, and it reached over 5 billion downloads last week.

There’s no doubt about it, the demand for music is increasing, and Apple offers the easiest way to buy it, from the comfort of your own home.

Over the past years, with digital music sales rising, and CD sales free falling, Apple has managed to gain a lot of terrain in front of consecrated music retailers, such as Wal-Mart, the former number one music retailer in U.S.

At the beginning of this year, Apple’s iTunes Music Store became the uncontested leader of the music market, by surpassing Wal-Mart.

The iTunes Store currently play a significant role in the music industry, and is way ahead competitors from the same field, such as Amazon.com.

In February, Apple announced its fourth billion song sold though its online store, and it took less than half a year to make the next record-breaking announcement of the fifth billion song sold.

By constantly refreshing their iPod line, and offering one quarter of its music library as DRM-free tracks, Apple managed to not only keep up with competitors, but form a league of its own when it comes to selling music.

It seems like the introduction of the iPhone, as well as new models of iPods, along with EMI’s catalog of DRM free tracks have boosted the music sales on iTunes.

Apple has placed an undisputed mark over the music market in the past few years. What everyone is waiting for right now is a rival to live up to all expectations and tell Apple there’s a new music retailer in town.

Until then, the iTunes Store continues to expand its library and services, by introducing a movie offer in addition to the 8 million music tracks available online.