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”
Tom,
I’ve got your NUMB3R!
What a bummer! I thought this was going to go at about 3-5am EST which would have meant a leisurely morning here in the UK alerting the recipients of my gift vouchers to ‘buy now’! I bet there are others in this boat so there will be lot’s more iTMS sales even after the billionth.
Wonder who the lucky devil is?
Kudos to Steve Jobs, Eddy Cue and the rest of the Apple team responsible for iTMS.
Over the period of the promotion, Apple averaged 3.125 million downloads/day which is a hell of a number considering that between 18/07/05 and 10/01/06, they were running at “only” 2.08 million/day.
With more iPods being sold every day – I’m guessing another 7.5-9 million for this quarter – and potentially the “iPod boombox” and “iPod hi-fi” coming up on the 28th, can Apple achieve the next billion by the end of the year in 311 days. I’m guessing on Yes.
Here’s a simple crushing fact for iTMS’ opposition.
The average downloads/day for iTMS since launch is just over 968,000, including the ramp-up period (the Mac-only in the USA) period. I would doubt – simply by tracking back on iTMS’ market share – that the rest of the market sells more than 800,000 tracks/day now at a steady state. So iTMS’ historical performance is over 20% better than the current performance of all of their competitors combined.
One thousand million.
A billion is 1,000,000,000,000.
I WON!!!!
(not)
/cry :(((
Dave H: A billion is 1,000,000,000,000.
Dave, that is not a billion. That is one trillion. A billion has 1 and nine zeros after it. Using scientific notation:
billion = 1 X 10^9
trillion = 1 X 10^12
quadrillion = 1 X 10^15
quintillion = 1 X 10^18
sixtillion = 1 X 10^21
septillion = 1 X 10^24
octillion = 1 X 10^27
nonillion = 1 X 10^27
decillion = 1 X 10^30
googol (not google) plex = 1 X 10^100
Actually, that’s the difference between an old-style UK/European billion, which was a million million (1×10^12) and the US interpretation which was 1 x 10^9.
Ultimately the domination of US financial markets and US science has led to the US “version” becoming the received ‘de facto’ standard.
I found out a couple of minutes ago that the lucky winner of the 1 billion countdown is actually… BILL GATES. Yes folks, he was the one that purchaced the 1billion song and he’s really happy to get his first 20″ iMac, iPod’s and the 10.000$ gift card. You think he’s gonna try to install windows in there??
LOL
How soon we forget…
When Apple first introduced the iTMS, the websites were filled with naysayers predicting that Apple could not compete against the illegal P2P downloading networks as well as the fears of not owning a physical CD. Most of these predictions were based upon the lack of success of the other online music sellers/subscription services. The “industry” and their mindless lemmings all touted that subscription services were the way to go. Whatever happened to them?
I offer a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Steve & crew for sticking with their vision. They created a win for themselves and their stockholders, a win for the music industry, and a definite win for the music consumers by creating a very entertaining, logical and easy way to browse, sample and purchase music.
Now, let’s see what is next up your sleeve in 5 days!!
AJ
1,000,000,000,000 is a billion. 1,000,000,000 is a milliard.
So this was the milliarth song sold. Great going for Apple and definitely worth giving away an iMac, but a long way from the billionth.
I bought more than 10 iPods already, over 10,000 songs and have a whole college named in my honor.
I didn’t need to wait for a screwed up counter to finish either.
Bahhh humbug
Oh I also got one of those worthless iMac’s too, my friend didn’t want it, apparantly Apple’s interface is not all as easy as it should be,
MacDude
If it’s a Core Duo I don’t think you’re friend gave it much of a chance. Some people are too engrossed in the Windows way of doing things. As Yoda would say, “unlearn”.
BTW, worthless? If it’s slower than your Power Mac, it’s because it’s a lot cheaper. Horses for courses. Why do you think Apple offer a range rather than just one model?
Your, not you’re
MDN, HOW ABOUT AN EDIT BUTTON???
Dave H:
1.000.000.000
ist a billion in the USA but
a “Milliarde” here in Germany. A “Billion” is here 1.000.000.000.000.
You got it? It depends on where you are living.
There you go.
The votes as they stand:-
For Billion
USA
For Milliard
UK
Germany
Therefore at time of writing it’s a milliard by two to one.
Apple is definitely using the USA definition of “billion.” I’m sorry Dave … I guess you were hoping the countdown was only 1/1000th of the way there…?
Dave: “Therefore at time of writing it’s a milliard by two to one.”
Dave, when you get all the EU nations to agree on that, we’ll consider it one to one.
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i guess as the world gets larger & the things on it more numerous, thus requiring larger denominations, the NATIONS better get together & straighten this whole billion/million-million/milliard/miliarde out before someone gets ripped off by 3 WHOLE ZEROS.
Look, just because in the USA you have a third of a milliard people, more milliardaires than any other country, and an half a billion budget deficit it doesn’t make you automatically right.
Apple won’t pass a billion songs until mid-2007 at least!
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
A billion dollars…
…end to end they stretch 97,656 miles. That’s nearly four times around the world.
…cover about 4 square miles.
…stack reaches over 47 miles high.
How fast can you spend a billion dollars?
A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.
Dave H: You place too much expectation on the colonist. They could not spell either, as you know.
1,000,000,000 = billion in Canada
Also, If you think that’s strange… in Japan they count in units of 10000, not 1000. So, it’s 十億… or Ten Hundred Million (10,0000,0000)
“in Japan they count in units of 10000, not 1000.”
So do Chinese and I suspect other Asian countries, who probably learned how to count from Chinese. So more people count in unit of 10000 than 1000.
Un milliard en France = 1000 millions
It’s three to one in favour of milliard.
That’s favour, with a “U”, you realise.