Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 25 billion songs from the iTunes Store, the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store. The 25 billionth song, “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch, was purchased by Phillip Lüpke from Germany. As the downloader of the 25 billionth song, Phillip will receive a €10,000 iTunes Gift Card.
“We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in the press release. “Averaging over 15,000 songs downloaded per minute, the iTunes Store connects music fans with their favorite artists, including global sensations like Adele and Coldplay and new artists like The Lumineers, on a scale we never imagined possible.”
“In a lot of ways, iTunes has leveled the playing field for musicians. Whether you’re unsigned, indie, major, whatever—it’s the place most people go to buy digital music,” said Wesley Schultz, guitarist and lead vocalist of The Lumineers, in the release. “iTunes doesn’t exclude any musicians simply because they’re not yet established or popular.”
The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular music store with a catalog of over 26 million songs and over 25 billion songs downloaded, and is available in 119 countries. The iTunes Store is the best way for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. All music on the iTunes Store comes in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to your devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to your iOS devices.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: 25 billion in under 10 years! Congrats, Apple!
The Apple iTunes Store Milestones:
• February 6, 2013: 25 billion songs sold.
• February 24, 2010: 10 billion songs sold.
• June 19, 2008: 5 billion songs sold.
• 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. Available 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 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, and 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.
Related articles:
Apple’s iTunes Store passes 10 billion songs downloads milestone – February 24, 2010
Steve Jobs phones contest-unaware iTunes Store 10 billionth song winner – February 26, 2010
iTunes Store tops 5 billion songs sold; Apple renting and selling over 50,000 movies per day – June 19, 2008
Apple’s iTunes Store passes three billion songs sold milestone – July 31, 2007
a href=”http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/13233/”>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’s iTunes Music Store hits one billion songs sold milestone – February 23, 2006
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 2, 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 launches iTunes Affiliate Program; 125 million iTunes purchased to date – September 01, 2004
Apple’s iTunes Music Store sells 100 millionth song – July 12, 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 – April 28, 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
Apple’s iTunes Music Store sells estimated 275,000 tracks in first 18 hours – May 01, 2003
And we wondered why Steve was wandering into the music business.
Simply Amazing.
Cheers iTunes!
That’s all well and good, but no one is ever going to listen to any of those songs, because as we all know, nobody buys Apple products, and the company is on the verge of winking out of existence… Oh wait,.. .. that’s Dell.. Never mind..
As a musician, I can say that iTunes was THE single best thing ever to happen in the music industry. It will only be eclipsed (as the single best thing to ever happen to the music industry) by the collective demise of the “major five” (Universal, Warner, Sony, BMG, EMI) music labels.
Wiith the exception of the A-list artists (of the “Beyonce” or “Madonna” calibre), musicians lucky enough to get signed by any of the labels (and especially the big five) were exploited in most despicable ways. Label would essentially make sure it recovers every single penny it spent for the production and promotion of your act before it would begin paying you your share. In other words, there would be very little risk to them from signing you — if your music begins selling, you’d never see any money until all of the money they invested was recovered. And even after that, they’d continue to collect the lion’s share of all proceeds (music sales, concert tickets, etc), with the artist getting a meagre, low two-figure percentage of gross.
With iTunes, you may not have the promotional muscle of Universal behind you, but with social media of today, you may not even need it. The money you make from iTunes is mostly yours (over 80% goes to the artist), and it costs exactly NOTHING to release your tracks on it.
Record labels are still clueless. Let us hope they soon generate the single most significant event in the history of music industry — their own demise (and push iTunes to the second place).
some guy won €10,000 in itunes credit for that download. If he spends it all, he can own the same thing I rent for $9.99 a month…………..WELL la -DI-FREAKIN’ DA