iTunes hits a billion downloads
Thu, 23 Feb 2006
Apple’s iTunes online music service has just sold its one billionth download — and it took just under three years for the milestone to be reached.
Sometime during Wednesday night, Alex Ostrovsky from Michigan, USA, who downloaded Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound’ to push Steve Jobs’ company past the 10-figure mark.
In a message on the site to coincide with the download, Apple thanked fans of iTunes and the company’s phenomenally successful iPod digital media player for their support.
"Music lovers like you in 21 countries around the globe have purchased 1 billion songs from the iTunes Music Store," the site, which had featured a counter since early February, said. "And for helping us reach this massive milestone in digital music history, we'd like to thank you."
Ostrovsky got more than a thank you note though. While every 100 000th downloader got a $100 iTunes voucher and a black 4GB iPod nano, the lucky man struck the jackpot.
He received a hefty prize for buying the milestone track: a 20-inch iMac computer, 10 60GB video iPods and a $10&000 iTunes voucher, to keep him listening and downloading to his heart’s content.
Apple also established a scholarship in Ostrovsky’s name at New York’s celebrated Juilliard School of Music.
Apple CEO Jobs heralded the milestone.
"I hope that every customer, artist and music company executive takes a moment today to reflect on what we've achieved together during the past three years," he said in a statement.
"Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the internet."
Jobs has a lot to be proud of. While the music industry struggled to come to terms with illegal download sites that were depriving companies and artists of royalties, Jobs launched headlong into the legal digital download market, wisely coupling his service with the highly popular, trend-setting iPod — the must-have music player of the moment.
After launching in April 2003, iTunes sold a million tracks within five days, and after a year had sold 70 million downloads.
The half a billion mark as hit on July 17 last year when Amy Greer downloaded Faith Hill’s ‘Mississippi Girl’.
With that figure being doubled in just eight months, iTunes has seen a massive increase in sales with the monthly average in the region of 60 million downloads. This means that, as of October 2005, As of October, iTunes accounted for 82 percent of the United States’ legal music downloads.
And, while digital sales only account for six percent of overall music sales, within a year they’ve spiralled from $220-million to $790-million.
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