Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over 10 billion songs from the iTunes Store, the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. The 10 billionth song, “Guess Things Happen That Way” by Johnny Cash, was purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. As the winner of the iTunes Countdown to 10 Billion Songs, Louie will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. iTunes is the number one music retailer in the world and features the world’s largest music catalog with over 12 million songs.
“We’re grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services, in the press release. “We’re proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering.”
Apple’s iTunes Store currently has a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 movies including over 2,500 in high definition video.
Congratulations Louie, now don’t just fritter it away, spend it wisely, and ENJOY!
I think he will spend his money well. At least the song was from a real musician and not the overproduced crap of today.
How ironic….yet perfect.
Does he get a 1000 TB drive to store all the purchases on lol
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At least the 10 billionth song wasn’t some pop travesty synthesized by some “star” of the week. (You know who I’m talking about, iTunes Top 25 downloads.)
And he’ll only have to pay $4500 in taxes for his trouble!
@qka,
“At least the (insert sales figure here) song wasn’t some pop travesty (insert musical instrument) by some “star” of the week.”
Funny; the EXACT SAME THING was likely said “back in the day” about The Beatles, The Stones, Elvis, and Johnny Cash. Your definition of “pop travesty” is someone else’s “pop genius”, like it or not. Such is the nature of pop music.
Classy, very classy…R.I.P. Johnny
@ gzero,
“Funny; the EXACT SAME THING was likely said “back in the day” about The Beatles, The Stones, Elvis, and Johnny Cash.”
I was there.
No it wasn’t. It was real music and everyone knew it.
@Big Als MBP,
“I was there.
No it wasn’t. It was real music and everyone knew it.”
You sure you want to go there? Because I could just as easily say “No; Mozart, Bach, Beethoven etc. are REAL music.” I hope you see my point now. It’s all about personal taste.
Whether or not “you were there” is totally irrelevant.
I agree, Big Al’s MBP. Nobody every considered ANY of the above-mentioned (Stones, Elvis, Beatles…) “pop travesty”. There WERE people who hated the genre, the social implications, the lifestyles, etc.
What QKA was referring to was an actual, synthetic pop star. A teen boy band (or teen girl band) devised in a Disney marketing department and put together for the sole purpose of generating revenue. With hired, professional lyricists, composers and arrangers/producers, with carefully crafted image (hair/makeup/costumes, as well as life story), selling to pre-teens and teens. With a 4-year shelf life.
As opposed to genuine, organic musicians, who practiced their craft, poured their soul out writing music and words, performing in clubs, getting discovered by some A&R guy and getting signed by some label. like Elvis, Beatles, Stones… or Johnny Cash.
Much like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach… just as real, genuine and organic as Lennon/McCartney, or Cash.
Unlike Spears, Cyrus (the girl; not necessarily the father), “Cheetah Girls”, “Jonas Brothers”…
@Predrag,
I agree, Big Al’s MBP. Nobody every considered ANY of the above-mentioned (Stones, Elvis, Beatles…) “pop travesty”. There WERE people who hated the genre, the social implications, the lifestyles, etc.
That is simply not true, considering what passed for pop music before said artists came along. Are you suggesting that “hating the genre” (which you mentioned above) and considering it “pop travesty” are not the same thing?
I never implied that Big Al’s MBP was wrong: I’m just saying that one man’s garbage is another man’s gold.
Besides, there have been pre-packaged teen pop bands as long as there has been pop music. Elvis didn’t write most of the hits he’s known for. The Beatles’ first hit in the US was a remake of an Isley Brothers song. There were just as many pre packaged bands in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s as there are today. There were plenty of people back then who thought Johnny Cash was horrible.
My point was: to rag on today’s pop music – synthesized or not – make’s Big Al really no different than those who criticized the pop stars of the last few generations.
Well, guess things happen that way.
Glad it wasn’t given for rap-crap. Know what I’m sayin’
gzero,
Some of your arguments certainly do hold water (“one man’s garbage is another man’s gold”). However, my point (and Big Al’s MBP’s, as I understood him) that you can simply not compare any of the 50’s and 60’s acts mentioned with the carefully put together, synthetic bands. It’s like grasroots vs. astroturfing. The primary point here isn’t about the actual quality of music (some songs performed by these synthetic acts are quite inspired and well written; after all, they’re done by highly paid, experienced professionals; many songs by genuine, organic acts are often considered poor by critics and audiences). It is just about the honesty of the music industry, where vast majority of audience buys into it for the sincerity and genuineness of the artists (in addition to their personal taste for the genre and style, obviously).
To many people here, it would have been disappointing if the winning purchase had ended up being some Ashely Tisdale song from High School Musical 16, rather than an act that is genuinely original, sincere and organic.
Big Al’s MBP didn’t rag on all of today’s pop music; his remarks seem to refer specifically to that segment of today’s pop music that is represented by artists/acts carefully designed and developed by marketing departments of multi-billion-dollar media companies.
My main question here is, since this is iTunes gift certificate, would this guy be able to buy ANYTHING other than music, movies/shows and apps? No MacBook Pro, or iPad, or iMac…?
If not, how does one spend ten large on just music? You can’t even fit all of that on any current modern iPod/iPhone/iPad (the Classic being on the way out)…
@Predrag
“My main question here is, since this is iTunes gift certificate, would this guy be able to buy ANYTHING other than music, movies/shows and apps? No MacBook Pro, or iPad, or iMac…?”
Absolutely! He can make use of the world’s greatest currency converter: eBay!
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Yeah, that gift card would be a pain in the ass. I’d have been pissed to win that.
Jeez, some of you guys are grumpy.
Music – pop, classical, jazz, blues, whatever – is an art form which is subject to the same rules of personal taste as any other artistic/cultural artefact.
Personally, I’m not the greatest lover of some of the modern charts, however – I do remember hearing Hit Me Baby One More Time back in 1998 (?) and thinking hit. Likewise, Aguilera’s first single.
Artists doing voiceovers to pre-fabricated backing tracks (albeit recorded on much more limited facilities) written by song-writing factories happened back in the Sixties with Motown, with Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey Robinson and many others acting as writers for a label that was – for many years (arguably prior to the move to Hollywood) – an arbiter of the best of popular music.
On the other hand, you have small auteur boutiques like the old EG Records/Management: from a small office above a hairdresser on London’s King Road, they either managed or were the label for bands like King Crimson/Robert Fripp, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, T. Rex, Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry, Killing Joke, UK, Bruford and a few more besides.
But some people – certainly a lot of my friends – would rather poke their own eyes with sticks than listen to my EG catalog, whereas I believe the office should have a memorial on the pavement outside given the influence their roster has had on modern music (U2, Japan, DuranDuran, Magazine, Radiohead, Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo, Ultravox, etc.) Go figure.
And if you want to debate that whole “Factory” concept in art generally, I give you Andy Warhol.
As @jonahan said, hope he enjoys laying out cold hard cash today for some virtual purchases it will probably take years to spend.
What a terrible idea for a huge prize. Maybe 1K of iTunes + assorted computer gear or something would have been better. A maxed out Mac Pro would be about 10K and would be friggin awesome
$10,000 is about 9,000 songs, or about 40GB of music. Throw in a few movies, and I would think you could chew through the prize in less than a year, if you put your mind to it.
@ron… no, I don’t know what you’re saying. I have my suspicions, but rather than call you out on something you might not actually mean why don’t you just explicitly say what it is you’re trying to say.
I’m no fan of rap either but I don’t need imply unsavory ideas to voice my displeasure. I can just say I don’t like it without implying anything about the people who do…