10 billion songs
Latest
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.
10 billionth iTunes download going down today
Obama Pacman has done the math, and they claim that the 10 billionth song download on iTunes (which Apple is paying out a $10k gift card for) is going to happen today, February 24th. So if you've been waiting to buy some music, today's the day to do it -- go pick up some songs in the early to late evening, and you might end up being the lucky winner. Plus, contest aside, this means Apple will have sold 10 billion songs on their store. That's an incredible number, and it's a number that has changed this industry for sure. Fortune's Brainstorm Tech blog has a nice short look at just what that means for the store itself, including the fact that the store is now making over $520 million a quarter (even though Apple says that it's only slightly profitable for them, as they're more interested in hardware than content) and that the Black Eyed Peas have two of the top 20 best-selling songs of all time, the first and the third. Pretty incredible achievement for Apple, and with the iPad on the way, I'll bet the iTunes store will only get busier. We'll keep an eye open for the official announcement this evening. Good luck if you're trying for the prize!
Apple's iTunes nears 10 billionth song download
Apple has announced it is nearing the 10 billion mark for iTunes music downloads. iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night. Seven years later, we're about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet -- 10 billion songs downloaded. In celebration of this, Apple is running a promotion that awards a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the person who downloads the 10 billionth song. The promotion is open to residents (age 13 or higher) of all fifty States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. You can enter up to 25 times a day by buying songs. Alternatively, Apple doesn't require you to purchase a song to qualify for the promotion: they've set up a handy "No Purchase Necessary" form which you can fill out up to 25 times per day. From the tally on their counter, it looks like they come 1,000 songs closer to the 10 billionth download every eleven seconds. At the time of this writing, that means they should hit the 10 billion mark in a little over two weeks. Apple has posted the Official Rules here.
