Apple Computer, Inc. has just this minute hit the one billion songs milestone in their “iTunes Music Store Billion Songs Coundown.”
As Apple marked thier way to one billion, the music fans who downloaded every 100,000th song (starting at the 950 million mark) received a prize package featuring a black 4GB iPod nano and a $100 iTunes Music Card (good for any media type). The lucky grand-prize winner (currently unknown, stay tuned for the press release) who downloaded the billionth song from the iTunes Music Store, has won a 20-inch iMac, ten 60GB iPods, and a $10,000 iTunes Music Card (good for any media type). In addition, Apple has created a full-ride scholarship in the winner’s name to a world-renowned music school.
The Apple iTunes Music Store Milestones:
• 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.
• 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.
Click here to launch Apple’s iTunes Store.
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Related articles:
Apple launches iTunes Music Store Billion Songs Coundown; win iMac, 10 iPods, $10,000 iTunes Card – February 07, 2006
Apple CEO Steve Jobs phones 100 millionth song winner at 12:45 am – July 12, 2004
Man, those last few thousand went fast!
I downloaded a bunch tonight trying to win. No soup for me!
What happend to the last 5000?
And we don’t give a hoot
The store is now closed. I wonder how soon they tell me that I purchased the one billionth song?
PS– First Post.
Wow….the iTMS is lag nation!
“I downloaded a bunch tonight trying to win. No soup for me!”
I sat down at the computer and started to read my Mac news. The first thing I saw was a headline about iTMS and I said, “Oh yeah! It’s gonna hit a billion tonight. I guess I’ll check it. The counter read 999,992,000 or so. I waited until it hit 999,998,000 and then started hitting the buy button on the stuff in my shopping cart.
Hey! My phone’s ringing! Maybe it’s Steve…
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“2 Billion Served” . . . here we come.
P.S. Spark’s a dork.
When do they tell me I won? I bought a few uneeded tunes tonight…they owe me! LOL!
It jumped from 999,970,— to a billion. Man, I didn’t even pull the trigger.
Maybe I’ll win at the 2 billion mark.
P.S. Ken the Banker is a wanker
Steve Jobs hasn’t called me yet. 🙁
I was refreshing the front page with the counter, and the last 10 000 went by just slow enough for me to get in one last no-purchase-necessary form.
“Maybe I’ll win at the 2 billion mark.”
No, you’ll still be a late tool.
it’s really something, 1 billion downloads in less than 3 years…..
next billion by this time next year?
OK… I’m still on dial-up and I bought a few songs tonight.
In the off-chance that I actually bought the magic number, how shitty would it be if Steve called my house and it was busy from my dial-up service?
Wing, are you kidding?
It will hit 2 billion before the end of summer. That is my prediction.
Spark and Ken the Banker are both teh lamerz
Let’s see: 100 million songs/month right now. That’d be 10 more months to 2 billion with no growth curve, so . . .
I say, being a little pessimistic, and barring a recession, next billion by Thanksgiving this year.
Christmas at the latest.
Hey, phhhtttt (aka Fartman) . . . stop breaking wind in here.
im hoping for a little charlie and the chocolate factory action here, i only bought two songs
“no, not two hundred. just two”
The count on the itunes/1billion site was delayed at least 10 min. It increased at a relatively constant rate but every 5 min or so it would be updated and jump 10,000 or more. Considering even that jump was delayed 10 min, making a good guess at the billion song purchase time would have required a decent amount of math and not have been nearly accurate enough to guarentee being within 10,000 of the billion mark.
I tried to make an educated guess but cruely was away from my computer at the crucial moment. I’ll try again at 2 billion.
Based on the numbers MDN gives above, and some other counts I’ve collected from Apple’s countdown, I’ve built a simple statistical model of iTunes song sales.
Last July, I posted my correct prediction that Apple would hit 900 million songs sold in January, based on this model.
My updated model predicts:
– 1.5 billion sold in Aug. 2007
– 2 billion sold in Dec. 2007 (if correct, I believe this would put Apple at about 30% of the overall U.S. music market by the end of the year!)
– 2.5 billion sold in Mar. 2007
Same caveats as in my July post:
* This projection is based on a cubic polynomial regression. I wouldn’t call it the most logical model for this, but it provided a much better fit for the data than others, and made a successful prediction of the 900,000 sold.
* With such rapid growth, projections are highly sensitive to minor changes in growth rate.
* Apple’s growth up to now has been fed by activities that they will need to continue to feed future growth: iPod updates and new models, iTunes updates, promotions, partnerships, and new countries.
* As such growth curves hit saturation points, they eventually level out. I don’t think that will happen before they hit 50% market share, but it might.
The very good news is ….
The first 500 million took about 2 years and 3 months.
The second 500 million took about 7 months!
Conclusion:- buy AAPL!
Hey MDN, dont forget – “August 5, 2005: Available in Japan”