“I just love watching what smart people come up with. The latest is an algorithm to figure out when Apple will reach its 10 billionth song downloaded,” Jim Dalrymple reports for The Loop.

“Barry Schwartz, Mike Butler and Alex Fierro came up with a way to predict when the company will reach the milestone,” Dalrymple reports.

MacDailyNews Note: The 10 billionth downloader wins a US$10,000 iTunes Gift Card from Apple.

Full article here.

You can see the counter on Schwartz’s Web site, which currently says: “Songs to go before 10 Billion: 83,334,411. Approximate date and time for 10 Billionth: Tuesday, February 23rd – 3:34:54 AM,” here.

Related articles:
Apple begins iTunes Store countdown to 10 billion songs; win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card – February 11, 2010
Apple passes 6 billion songs sold milestone, changes iTune on pricing – January 07, 2009
iTunes Store tops 5 billion songs sold; Apple renting and selling over 50,000 movies per day – June 19, 2008
NPD: Apple’s iTunes Store now the 2nd largest U.S. music retailer; over four billion songs sold – February 26, 2008
Apple’s iTunes Store passes three billion songs sold milestone – July 31, 2007
Apple hits major milestones: 100 Million iPods sold, 2.5 billion iTunes Store songs sold – April 09, 2007
Apple’s iTunes Store passes two billion songs milestone; 50m TV shows & over 1.3m movies sold – January 09, 2007
Apple iTunes Music Store’s billionth song downloader wins big – February 24, 2006
Apple’s iTunes+iPod market dominance underscored with more than 1 billion songs sold – February 24, 2006
Michigander wins Apple’s iTunes Music Store’s one billionth song giveaway – February 23, 2006
Apple’s iTunes Music Store hits one billion songs sold milestone – February 23, 2006
Apple iTunes Music Store nears one billion songs sold milestone – February 22, 2006
Nine Figures 3 released; tracks iTunes Music Store countdown to 1 billion songs – February 07, 2006
Apple launches iTunes Music Store Billion Songs Coundown; win iMac, 10 iPods, $10,000 iTunes Card – February 07, 2006
Steve Jobs: ‘WOW!’ – Apple iTunes Music Store downloads top half a billion songs – July 18, 2005
Over half a billion songs have been sold from Apple’s iTunes Music Store – July 17, 2005
Apple launches iTunes Music Store Countdown to half a billion songs; win 10 iPods, 10,000 songs – July 05, 2005
Apple’s iTunes Music Store: over a quarter billion songs served – January 24, 2005
Apple passes 600 million iTunes Music Store songs sold milestone – October 25, 2005
Apple’s iTunes Music Store downloads pass 300 million songs milestone (with chart) – March 02, 2005
Apple’s iTunes Music Store downloads pass 200 million songs milestone – December 16, 2004
Apple’s iTunes Music Store passes 150 million songs milestone – October 14, 2004
Apple CEO Steve Jobs phones 100 millionth song winner at 12:45 am – July 12, 2004
Apple’s iTunes Music Store sells 100 millionth song – July 12, 2004
iTunes Music Store counts down to 100 million songs with iPod, iTunes & PowerBook giveaways – July 01, 2004
Over 85 million songs downloaded from Apple’s iTunes Music Store – June 08, 2004
Apple launches 3G iTunes Music Store; sold over 70 million songs in first year; adds auto WMA to AAC – April 28, 2004
Steve Jobs says Apple to sell 70-75 million songs by end of April – March 16, 2004
Apple’s iTunes Music Store milestone: over 50 million songs sold – March 15, 2004
Apple’s iTunes Music Store sells ten millionth song; averaging over 500,000 songs per week – September 08, 2003
iTunes Music Store hits five million songs sold; Apple to ship one millionth iPod this week – June 23, 2003
Apple iTunes Music Store sold 3 million songs in first month – May 29, 2003
iTunes Music Store sells over two million songs in first 16 days; over 4,300 songs added yesterday – May 14, 2003
iTunes Music Store sells over one million songs in first week; over 3,200 new tracks coming May 6th – May 05, 2003