Apple today announced that iTunes is now the number two music retailer in the US, behind only Wal-Mart, based on the latest data from the NPD Group. Apple also announced that there are now over 50 million iTunes Store customers. iTunes has sold over four billion songs, with an incredible 20 million songs sold on Christmas Day 2007 alone, and offers the world’s largest music catalog of over six million songs from all of the majors and thousands of independent labels.
“We’d like to thank the over 50 million music lovers who have helped the iTunes Store reach this incredible milestone,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, in the press release. “We continue to add great new features like iTunes Movie Rentals to give our customers even more reason to love iTunes.”
Last month, Apple launched iTunes Movie Rentals featuring movies from all of the major movie studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate and New Line Cinema. Users can rent movies and watch them on their PCs or Macs, all current generation iPods (iPod classic, iPod nano with video and iPod touch), iPhone and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV. iTunes Movie Rentals will offer over 1,000 titles by the end of this month, including over 100 titles in stunning high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound which users can rent directly from their widescreen TV using Apple TV.
iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only and are $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions (available only via Apple TV) are priced just one dollar more with library titles at $3.99 and new releases at $4.99. Movie rentals from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows require iTunes 7.6. iTunes Movie Rentals require a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase.
MacDailyNews Note:
The Apple iTunes Music Store Milestones:
• February 26, 2008: 4 billion songs sold.
• July 31, 2007: 3 billion songs sold.
• April 09, 2007: 2.5 billion songs sold.
• January 09, 2007: 2 billion songs sold.
• February 23, 2006: 1 billion songs sold.
• February 7, 2006: 950 million songs sold.
• January 9, 2006: 850 million songs sold.
• October 25, 2005: Available in Australia.
• August 4, 2005: Available in Japan.
• 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.
Over 1000 movies by the end of the month?
It’s already Feb 26th, and there are still only less than 400.
very cool
How many songs, movies and TV shows were sold with the Zune Marketwhatever store?
Yeah, they’re going to have a tough time reaching 1000 movies by month’s end. I guess they are counting on leap day to provide the extra time they need.
Apple now has the world’s largest music catalog. Just slowly take that in, and then let it sooth your nerves as you continue to hear complaints of Apple’s meager movie selection, and how the service and TV are doomed. They same was said about iTunes Store when it launched.
April 2003-Feb 2006 one billion sold (34 months)
Feb 2007-Jan 2007 next one billion sold (11 months)
Jan 2007-July 2007 next one billion sold (6 months)
July 2007-Feb 2008 next one billion sold (6 months)
Amazing story. Hope it hasn’t reached a plateau
Zune Tang,
and exactly how many songs were sold in the Zune Marketplace until now? I’m sure you bought at least 10 of the 25 Tracks sold…
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So cool for Apple!! It’s actually a shame that WalMart is #1, because they only sell crappy mainstream music. Apple is the only music retailer who actually sells the LARGEST VARIETY of music out there.
Just think how much better the selection is than at WalMart, which sells mostly JUNK (and censored at that). Go iTMS!
Five years from now no one will care that Apple only had 400 movies available at the end of February.
When iTunes Store was renamed, it debuted with 75 feature films and they now have 400 and it’s only been 18 months!
MikeK sees the glass half-empty.
> It’s already Feb 26th, and there are still only less than 400.
That’s right, it’s Feb 26th, not Feb 29th. Stop whining…
> with an incredible 20 million songs sold on Christmas Day 2007 alone
It’s incredible that the iTunes infrastructure did not have a meltdown serving up 20 million song files in 24 hours.
Does anyone else think iTunes needs an overhaul in terms of where to store things?
For example, I like to have my music on my laptop all the time, but I have my movies on an external HD.
iTunes needs new Preferences:
Store my Movies:
Store my Music:
Anyone agree?
Spark, that was well said. seriously people, reread it….
“Apple now has the world’s largest music catalog. Just slowly take that in, and then let it sooth your nerves as you continue to hear complaints of Apple’s meager movie selection, and how the service and TV are doomed. They same was said about iTunes Store when it launched.”
some things take time, but Apple never rests. in 9 months or so the same people complaining about the small catalog will be the ones proudly pointing out how they were “early adopters” of “that whole AppleTV thing.”
“MikeK sees the glass half-empty.”
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Umm no, MikeK doesn’t see the glass “half-empty.” MikeK is just reading the press release issued by Apple and is pointing out that there are only 3 days left in the month for Apple to update it’s movie selection to the stated “1000 movies by the end of February.”
Don’t forget:
August 5, 2005: Available in Japan
“That’s right, it’s Feb 26th, not Feb 29th. Stop whining…”
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Who’s whining? Certainly not MikeK.
@ sheep register
It was beginning Jan 07 to end of July 07 – Thats 7 full months
Still the next billion was achieved in 6 months, which clearly indicates a plateauing in growth.
I still have 20 bucks in my account but really am not too sure what to buy. I’m going to have to look more closely at indie work because I’m kinda bored what I hear.
Also Apple need to figure out better ways to get people turned on to music. Song tagging would be ideal and an HD radio add-on would work for me, so that I could listen to music in the car and tag what I like. However if the stations just play the same old stuff none of us will pick up new music.
iTunes growth is exponential.
i keep my mouth shut …
I bet once Apple drops the price of the current iPhone (For the record: I personally do not believe that Apple will introduce an iPhone “nano”. I think they will keep the current iPhone with a slight case mod starting at $199, and a 3G model at the current $399 – $499 prices. That is how they will get to 10 million iPhone sales in 2008), iTunes will become the #1 music retailer within the next 9 months.
To me, the most wonderful aspect of the store is iTunes U. I don’t know if it’s a money maker, but to me it shows how Apple helps us broaden our lives. No other company comes close.
aah, i can’t keep silent, i have to say something negativ: the problem with these numbers is that they indicate that the days of growth for the music-store are over. the same day-average now, for about one year now. there is room for growth in movies and tv-shows though if there would be a decent …
Maybe MikeK wants to see “The Glass Menagerie”.
“there is room for growth in movies and tv-shows though if there would be a decent …”
And there’s always room for growth in porn.
“the problem with these numbers is that they indicate that the days of growth for the music-store are over.”
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No, I disagree, there was a new 20m songs sold record set on Christmas day, plus, they are still selling a ton of new iPods, iPhones and Apple Tv’s.
Even with all this talk of slowing iPod sales, they are still expected to sell 10 million units this quarter..
iTunes is still growing strong.