iTunes tops 1 billion downloads

Written by Tim Smalley

February 24, 2006 | 10:46

Tags: #billion #coldplay #digital #download #imac #ipod #itunes #music #piracy

Companies: #apple

Apple's iTunes online music store has sold over one billion songs.

Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan USA downloaded the 1 billionth song, Speed of Sound, as part of Coldplay's X&Y album. He's walked away with a brand new 20-inch iMac, ten 60GB iPods and a $10,000 iTunes Music Card to kickstart his digital music collection.

Apple also said they'd award prizes to every one hundred thousandth song that was downloaded. Each lucky downloader won a 4GB iPod Nano and a $100 iTunes Music Card.

iTunes officially opened back in 2003 and came to the UK in 2004. Prior to the launch, record labels were reluctant to distribute their material over the Internet because of piracy concerns.

Last month, the company claimed it had over 80 percent of the digital music download market. At the current growth rate, Apple is optimistic in witnessing the second billionth iTunes song downloaded later this year. The success is ultimately tied to the success of the various iterations of the iPod, which locks out content downloaded from competitors such as MSN Music and Yahoo! Music!.

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