Over the last decade and a half, Amazon.com has virtually mastered the art (science and technology) of getting physical/real copies of music, movies and books to customers through the mail. Now, it’s trying to expand its repertoire. The market for entertainment & information (popularly termed infotainment) is inexorably turning digital. One day, most music, movies and even textual content will be dispatched as bits over the vast expanses of the Internet instead of in bulky crates. More than half of the firm’s $15 billion in sales were from CDs, DVDs and books last year, shipped from its 30 distribution centers across the globe.

Last week, Apple declared its iTunes store had managed to surpass Wal-Mart Stores to emerge the top source of music sales in the US. Amazon, that still sells mostly CDs, was at No. 3 in sales terms last year. The firm has since lost some market share and is now tied for fourth place with Target. Best Buy is the new No. 3.

Digital is the way to go for the growth in music, and other domains are likely to follow. Amazon realises that it needs to position itself accordingly to capture the digital market. Steven Kessel oversees its digital efforts. Bill Carr is in charge of the company’s MP3 digital music store as well its Unbox video download service. Ian Freed looks after the firm’s e-book-reading device, the Kindle.