Apple serves up 10 billionth iTune, smiles all the way to the bank

Whether you love it or loathe it, there is now no way to deny the spectacular success of Apple's iTunes Store. The proprietary digital media player, organizer and salesperson has just now recorded its 10 billionth song download, marking a truly unique achievement in the still nascent world of digital distribution. Congratulations to Apple, whose response has been to thank you all for spending so much cash and making El Steve look like the techno pied piper. Hit the source link to find out what the most downloaded songs of "all time" were... you might not be surprised by the top three, but you should definitely be horrified.

[RockNStuff Posted Feb 24th 2010 4:58PM]

Hot damn.

[r34p3r Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:04PM]

@RockNStuff

And yet their songs are still a rip-off @ .99 cents each.

I'll never use iTunes if I ever get into the digital music downloading action. Even if I had an iPod, I would still use places like Amazon for my digital content (been DRM-free all along). Better prices, quality and selection can all be found other places.

[geekthree Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:08PM]

@r34p3r $0.99 times a billion...

Thats like...... a billion 99$'s isin't it?

Awesome.

[RockNStuff Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:15PM]

@r34p3r Mostly at 1.29 nowadays.

[r34p3r Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:21PM]

@RockNStuff

Even more of a rip-off, then.

[werty1432k Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:24PM]

@RockNStuff Wonder who won the 10000 dollar gift card

[iLi3kTuttles Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:29PM]

@RockNStuff

Steve Jobs: Hey! Let's use this bad economy to our advantage and raise the price of our overpriced music!

Apple Executives: Woof!

[CoffeeCoffee Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:39PM]

@r34p3r

You can’t attempt to make a comment like "I would still use places like Amazon for my digital content (been DRM-free all along)” since Amazon MP3 was launched around the time of iTunes’ switch to DRM-Free music and therefore able to take advantage of Apple’s headway to coerce the music industry into unprotected music downloads.

[donv69 Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:44PM]

@geekthree And they get 30% of that $0.99.

[EljhHck Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:50PM]

@werty1432k Same. Waited until the last second to download the song after frantically refreshing for 5 minutes.
Bet I was probably within the last 500 or so, if I didn't pass it up.

[rchives Posted Feb 24th 2010 7:02PM]

And to thank everyone for making us billions of dollars we're going to ... raise prices from .99 to 1.29.

[jaffreywali Posted Feb 24th 2010 7:32PM]

@r34p3r

amazingly they did it without your help. It must be rip off.

[Wesscoast Posted Feb 24th 2010 7:38PM]

@RockNStuff

After a few minutes of checking, New Songs for 1.29, Classics for 99 cents. So yea, pretty much.

[DougieBear Posted Feb 24th 2010 8:00PM]

@(Unverified)

Doesn't that make them cost more than a CD? At least I get the pleasure of unwrapping a CD and popping it in the drive.

[Jack Posted Feb 24th 2010 9:18PM]

@r34p3r

Dear everybody bitching about pricing: This is not new. Apple sells songs with a price RANGE of $.69 to $1.29, and they have for a while. And are you ready for the shocker? That's exactly what Amazon sells them for.

From day ONE, Amazon's songs have cost up to $1.29. That was the agreement they made with the labels in order to be able to sell the music without DRM.

Apple finally made the same agreement, which is why all the songs on iTunes are now also DRM free. Same exact deal. You are not gaining anything by going to Amazon except a smaller selection and worse quality. Yes, AAC files are higher quality than MP3s, because AAC = MP4, and MP4 > MP3.

You learn something new every day, huh?

[shadowj0 Posted Feb 24th 2010 11:51PM]

@RockNStuff

They were supposed to give the one who downloaded the 10 billionth song a $10k iTunes gift card. Anyone get any info on the "big winner"?

And I don't mean Apple.

[FallenArms3 Posted Feb 25th 2010 6:28AM]

@Vaio Why do you think they're called 'pop' songs? They're popular.

I mean, it's sad, but expected.

[juanvaldez Posted Feb 25th 2010 10:52PM]

@Jack Well, amazon is much better at putting music on sale. Best selling albums for 7.99, weekly $5 albums that range from new hits to classics, and a daily deal for $2.99. iTunes took forever to start using any sort of sale selling model and they've never offered the same level of service for the sales they use. Plus you have to use iTunes, the resource hog.

[angermeans Posted Feb 27th 2010 3:44PM]

@iLi3kTuttles really shows how much you know about how iTunes works. He wanted DRM and the recording companies didnt so the RECORDING COs raised the price to 1.29 not Steve Jobs and Apple moron

[angermeans Posted Feb 27th 2010 3:47PM]

@(Unverified) yeah what a pleasure huh

[rmanke Posted Feb 24th 2010 4:59PM]

The article mentions the "source link", but on the iPhone app, there's no way to access it (that I can tell)...

[Shokz Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:14PM]

@rmanke Yeah, that's pretty much the only thing I hate about this App... Give us the source links for articles! :(

PS: I hate iTunes - would avoid it like the plague if I didn't have an iPod Touch; it's probably the worst piece of software I've ever had the misfortune of having to use...

[kojo87 Posted Feb 25th 2010 2:05AM]

@Shokz you sound like a good candidate for a Zune HD and a Zune Pass. im guessing you wouldn't be disappointed.

[AckbarsFist Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:00PM]

Congrats to Apple.

[erik1080 Posted Feb 24th 2010 6:29PM]

@AckbarsFist

Also, congrats to the person who downloaded the 10 billionth song. I think they get a $10000 gift card.

[daytripper Posted Feb 24th 2010 11:04PM]

@erik1080
If you have to use it on iTunes, what the point? If it's a regular gift card, now your talking!

[angermeans Posted Feb 27th 2010 3:49PM]

@daytripper I would love a 10k gift card from iTunes

[N900 Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:01PM]

Congrats Apple for it's 10th billion. Did ya know it's also Jobs' birthday?

[spasewalkr Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:10PM]

@N900

that's quite a present ;)

[Kirtay Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:13PM]

@N900:
Yep, was going to mention in comments, nice present for Jobs.

[n0ne Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:01PM]

Let me know when they sell a Google-plex of songs, maybe I'll care then...

[n0ne Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:04PM]

@n0ne haha google... I meant "Googolplex"

[CTTHosting Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:05PM]

@n0ne
Its Googolplex not Google-plex. I don't think that will ever happen in my lifetime.

[n0ne Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:06PM]

@CTTHosting yea, so used to type google... what does that tell ya? AMIRITE?

[N900 Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:09PM]

@n0ne Maybe that's why the EU is so curious! *puts on tinfoil hat*

[donv69 Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:52PM]

@n0ne I think Microsoft may have a Google-plex. :-D

[DrzNight Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:01PM]

People still buy online music? jeeze if I want to support an artist i really like I'll buy their cd otherwise...

Torrents FTW!

[Shokz Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:18PM]

@DrzNight +1

Honestly, I love buying a CD every now and then (especially if it's obscure and I can't find it available for download), but I'll never ever pay for a digital only copy of a song... And besides, my library would have cost thousands of pounds I just don't have if i'd have paid for most of it :/

[Endadget Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:39PM]

@DrzNight

I'd buy them online if they were in FLAC format.

Till then it's torrents and good old CDs for me. Oh well, I guess Apple and Co. don't miss me...

[SONYEDDIE Posted Feb 25th 2010 11:41PM]

@DrzNight
Piratebay is probably on their 100 Trillionth song download.
Seeing this thread shows us how stupid and uneducated people are about technology :(

[UrAwFuL Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:02PM]

Congrats to Apple... so that's like 10B times $1.29 = a lot..

[n0ne Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:07PM]

@UrAwFuL Minus what they owe to copyrights, so on and so on...

[d0mth0ma5 Posted Feb 24th 2010 8:01PM]

@n0ne Key point is thats 10,000,000,000 songs being played on (predominantly) iPods, iPhones and soon iPads. Its all about the hardware for Apple, i don't know how much they make per song but i'd bet the split is nowhere near the App Store's (30:70)

[fokka Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:03PM]

i loathe it.

[sumgoodman Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:03PM]

I almost feel bad for all these goons paying full price for a lossy compressed format. But not really.

[r34p3r Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:08PM]

@sumgoodman

And that's the thing..m4a is only negligibly different than .mp3, that it only begins to matter when you drop below 160 kbps.

[reallynotnick Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:14PM]

@sumgoodman
I used to think that when they were selling 128kb/s songs but now that they are selling 256kb/s it's very hard to tell the difference. Hell most people couldn't tell the difference between 128 and a CD, I'm very happy with 256 even though I still encode my CDs at 320kb/s VBR.

[sumgoodman Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:22PM]

If you play someone a snippet of a song in mp3 and then immediately play the same bit back in flac, I'm pretty confident they would hear the difference. Even if they have no musical inclinations.

[AckbarsFist Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:25PM]

@sumgoodman For those who don't have terabytes to store just music with, iTunes is just fine thankyouvermuch.

[sumgoodman Posted Feb 24th 2010 5:32PM]

Perfectly understandable. I just think a true music enthusiast is better off storing their collection in a lossless format on a external drive. That's what I do.