“Over half a billion songs have been sold and legally downloaded from the iTunes Music Store,” the home page of Apple.com reads. “Thanks to all the music fans in 19 countries for making the iTunes Music Store the #1 music download store.
Apple.com’s “iTunes – 50 Million Songs” web page reads:
Congratulations Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, the 500 Millionth Song Grand Prize Winner. Amy purchased the 500 millionth song – Mississippi Girl by Faith Hill – and was awarded the grand prize:
• 10 iPods — choose from any model iPod, iPod mini, iPod U2 or iPod shuffle
• Gold 10,000-song Gift Card for the iTunes Music Store and 10 additional 50-song gift cards to go with those iPods
• Four Coldplay Tickets and a trip for you and three guests to see Coldplay on its current tour, with front-row seats (subject to availability)
• Coldplay “Back-stage” Passes for a meet ’n’ greet with the band (guaranteed availability)
100,000 Song Winners are also listed on the page here.
The Apple iTunes Music Store Milestones:
• July 17, 2005 500 million songs sold
• May 10, 2005 400 million songs sold. Custom stores for music fans in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland
• January 24, 2005 250 million songs sold.
• December 16, 2004 200 million songs sold.
• December 2, 2004 Available in Canada.
• October 26, 2004 Available to music lovers in the European Union.
• October 14, 2004 150 million songs sold.
• July 12, 2004 100 million songs sold.
• June 15, 2004 Available in UK France Germany.
• April 28, 2004 70 million songs sold.
• March 15, 2004 50 million songs sold.
• December 15, 2003 25 million songs sold.
• October 16, 2003 Available for windows. 13 million songs sold.
• September 8, 2003 10 million songs sold.
• June 23, 2003 5 million songs sold.
• May 14, 2003 2 million songs sold.
• May 5, 2003 One million songs sold.
• April 28, 2003 Launched in United States.
More info about Apple’s iTunes Music Store here.
Can’t stop this runaway train… Go Apple!
Meanwhile, in non-iTMS land, the “competitors” (heretofore known as the ‘other guys’) will have sold a grand total of 5,000,000 songs.
Took a while to see this news article posted. Next stop 1 BILLION Songs downloaded.
thats more than all the harry potter books sold world wide.
Way to go, Apple!
That’s a download rate of nearly 50 million songs per month. Awesome. I hope it continues. Not sure how much impact the contest had, but I’m sure it had some.
Can anybody make up a chart from those figures?
Well, I guess Steve was right. A LOT of people didn’t want to be stealing songs but there was no good alternative available. Thank God Apple did this first so it was done right. Now if they can just leverage their dominance to keep the RIAA from fscking it up.
It was also VERY cool that a lot of of windoze users got a sip of the kool-aid and I think we are going to be seeing more and more of them who want more. It has already started as evidenced by recent market share gains and it is only gonna get better. Nice to see the world become a better place – even if it is only going from 3 percent to 6 percent
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MW: ‘started’ – nuff said.
Australia needs iTunes! Come on, I should not have to use a PC to download music here.
Half a billion is good but it’s probably mostly Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, etc. The iTMS is more for the youth market than anyone else. If you have good taste in music then record stores are the best option.
I bought three songs this weekend. I won nuthin’.
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Sol: The iTMS is more for the youth market than anyone else. If you have good taste in music then record stores are the best option.
What absolute bollocks!
If all those songs were atoms, then you could probably fit them on the head of a pin.
MDN word “science”
MDN word: still
as in, still #1
Go iTunes, and Apple!
re: “thats more than all the harry potter books sold world wide.”
That is even more than any single artist tracks sold worldwide:)
BTW how long didi it take to get half a billion and how many is it per month and how much is the Apple’s profit on each track? if u make that math u will get what they eran in month and that seems to be modest…
Don’t be too hard on Sol–he’s just trying to console himself over the fact that iTunes hasn’t arrived in Australia yet. Lying to yourself is a bit pathetic, but let’s give those deprived Aussies a break!
Happy to be living on the right side of the iTunes divide,
RT
OK,
Sol, I’m 51 and there’s a punk compilation that I can’t get in A’stralia and while the bit rate at the music store is too low I do want this album. And mate just for the record I’m ex-music industry and I want to pick and choose my way through the collection for the stuff I can’t get.
And now the kid gloves are off. I did some checking and yes Sony is the culprit holding up the opening of the store in Australia. When I worked for the muso’s union in Australia (in the early nineties) I had a number of run-ins with the company and nothing’s changed since then.
However, if Sony holds out in Japan and Apple goes ahead with the launch I’ll be one pretty pissed off Mac user.
So Mr Jobs the apple’s in your court as far as opening the music store in Australia is concerned. In fact I’m beginning to think Steve Jobs is pretty gutless. I’m sick of plugging the iTunes music store only to see it open in some European that has never produced a world class act and has a smaller population than Australia.
Australians have bought ipods by the bucket load and if any company has the punch to extend this concept to Australia it’s the company that’s revolutionised the music industry. So Apple get your shit together because I’m sick of making excuses for what appears to be one gutless company.
And just for the record I don’t give a flying shit what people from other countries think because most of you already enjoy the benefits of the music store.
I’m not happy…not happy at all. And I’m especially sick of excuses.
Coolfactor:
Next to no effect whatsoever, strangely enough!
Between the 350 and 400M milestones, Apple sold tracks at around 1.562 million/day.
And for the duration of the contest that I monitored (20:00 BST 6th July thru midnight 18 July), Apple sold around 1.524 million/day.
So, for the benefit of gloaters…
First 100 million tracks completed in 441 days
Next 100 million completed in 157 days
Third 100 million tracks completed in 76 days
Fourth 100 million took 69 days
And the final 100 million took 68 days.
And if you listen to the podcast of the recent conference call, you’ll hear Apple’s CFO declare that iTMS ran at just above break-even for the recently completed quarter, which means that Napster is going to be bleeding red ink on their music operations for probably the best part of the next three years and the rest of them are probably never going to see black ink ever.
The main reason iTMS ran just above break even was Apple actually used most of the revenue for Ads. If Apple could spend that much with their hardware advertising, they would sell more macs as well.
I can’t go anywhere without seeing a iPod Ad.
Typing 101…
By Tony Smith at The Register:
“The half-billion target was actually exceeded yesterday…
By Derek Sooman at Techspot:
“The 500m mark was actually exceeded yesterday.”
By Tony Smith at The Register:
“If current trends continue, Apple will have sold two billion songs in the next ten months.”
By Derek Sooman at Techspot:
“If current trends continue, Apple will have sold two billion songs in the next ten months.”
By Tony Smith at The Register:
Muddying the water slightly is Apple’s own attempts to drive sales past the 500m mark, which included a monster giveaway to the buyer of download number 500m. Prizes included ten iPods, an 10,000-song iTunes gift card and an all-expenses paid trip for four to see Coldplay live. Apple also said it would hand over an iPod Mini and a 50-song bundle every 100,000 songs.
By Derek Sooman at Techspot:
Muddying the water slightly is Apple’s own attempts to drive sales past the 500m mark, which included a monster giveaway to the buyer of download number 500m. Prizes included ten iPods, an 10,000-song iTunes gift card and an all-expenses paid trip for four to see Coldplay live. Apple also said it would hand over an iPod Mini and a 50-song bundle every 100,000 songs.
By Tony Smith at The Register:
Separately, the Wall Street Journal claims Apple is in talks with the major labels and independents for the rights to sell music videos through iTunes. The paper cites sources who point to a September debut and pricing set to be $1.99 a go.
By Derek Sooman at Techspot:
What’s next for iTunes? Well, sources close to Apple say that the service will likely expand to include videos, selling at $1.99 a go.
(BTW, Derek posted later than Tony. Derek, you win a 1975 IBM Selectric and a copy of the International Copyright Act!)
Derek Sooman at Techchspot sez: “Hey aren’t plagiarism and journalism the SAME THING? …they both end in “ism,” after all.”
Nice catch.