Amazon.com's music store became the leading online music retailer in its first full quarter.

Judged as of the 1998 letter (published 1999). True: industry data or contemporaneous reports (e.g., Media Metrix or press coverage) show that Amazon's music store, launched in June 1998, led online music retail (ahead of CDnow and N2K) by sales or a similar measure in its first full quarter (Q3 1998). Mostly true: it became the leader on a reasonable measure, with a minor slip in timing or measure (e.g., by Q4 rather than Q3, or by traffic rather than sales). Mixed: it led on one measure and trailed on others. Mostly false: it became a leading but not the top retailer in that quarter, or reached the top only later. False: it clearly trailed competitors in that period.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Competitors Gang Up On Amazon CBS News · 7 October 1998

   “Meanwhile, CDnow and N2K are selling more CDs than is Amazon.com, which just got into the music business a few months ago.”

2. E2 IT’S TWO-PART HARMONY FOR ONLINE MUSIC RETAILERS New York Daily News · 26 October 1998

   “the merger of the top two Net music retailers”

E1 is a CBS News report from 7 October 1998, just after Q3 1998, Amazon's first full quarter selling music. It states that CDnow and N2K were selling more CDs than Amazon.com, which had entered the music business only a few months earlier. E2, from late October 1998, describes a pending merger as joining "the top two Net music retailers". The quote does not name the two companies, but it fits E1's account that two other retailers led the market. E1 reports that CDnow and N2K were selling more CDs than Amazon.com in early October 1998, which meets the criteria for false; E2 refers to a merger of "the top two Net music retailers" without naming them in the quoted text.