Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over five billion songs from the iTunes Store. iTunes is the number one music retailer in the US and features the largest music catalog with over eight million songs.
MacDailyNews Note: On February 26, 2008, Apple announced they had hit the 4 billion songs sold mark. They’ve now sold over 1 billion more songs in just the last four months or 250 million songs per (non-holiday, non-gift card) month on average.
Also, iTunes customers are now renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies every day, making iTunes the world’s most popular online movie store.
MacDailyNews Take: That’s quite the “hobby.” Apple is now selling or renting 1.5 million movies per month. Hello, Wall Street? Alternate headline: “Netflix execs use pants as toilets.”
iTunes features movies from all of the major movie studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate and New Line Cinema. Users can rent movies and watch them on their Macs or PCs, all current generation iPods, iPhone and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV. iTunes Store customers can also purchase new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios on the same day as their DVD release.
The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over eight million songs, over 20,000 TV episodes and over 2,000 films including over 350 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Note:
The Apple iTunes Store Milestones:
• 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 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.
Poor, sad little fanboi Ha, ha.
For the record, Apple DOES keep sales figures (it took me a whopping 30 seconds to look them up- So please?
Keep your inability to Google to yourself.
Moo…
I think what he wants – other than a generous supply of drugs – is for Apple to provide detail of exactly how many of each product it sells, as per the ludicrous analysts who turn up at every conference call and try to find new ways of phrasing the question so that Tim Cook falls for their clever subterfuge.
50,000 movies is very impressive when you compare movie playback options to song options. Maybe the studios will improve the selection now. That would add 4-5 shows per month at our house.
Well done Apple!
It is definitely good news that iTS DL rate is increasing once again. For a while it looked like there was going to be a plateau in sales growth.
It would be good to have low cost alternatives to cable / dsl. If internet throttling becomes rampant, the gov’t should look into monopolistic practices and make cable / dsl / satellite distribution independent of content providers.
Good news is that I’m now an American citizen and will be able exercise my opinion at the polling booth.
@ ralph from berlin:
u r right…
I just took the six month period as an “perceived average” if the term exists, and made some calculations from there.
The thing is Apple took almost 3 years to sell 1 billion songs. As sales expanded in 2006, it was taking just 1 yr (roughly) to sell another billion. And the next year roughly 6 months (Jan9 – Jul31’07 / Jul31’07 – Feb26’08 / Feb26 – Jun19’08) and accelerating!
How do you get ¢ on an iPhone????
What other items in history have sold as 5 billion items???
McDonald’s Hamburgers . . .
Zune Tang. Let’s hear the Zune numbers. To keep in mind just how many downloads that is, a billion minutes ago, Jesus wasnt even born yet.
Doesn’t Apple know that subscriptions are where it is at? Man, they’ll never learn.
I was against the iTunes rentals at first, but it’s so quick and easy that I find myself doing it from time to time, especially with the $.99 weekly deal. Still wish for improvements.
I also hate the way movies look on the iPhone. You lose so much screen real estate to those big black widescreen bars but when you zoom in, you’re losing like 25% of the picture. There has to be a better way than that.
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!
I feel so much better now -sorry
I own TV and love it. But as a Netflix subscriber, I’ve also found the $99 ROKU box very useful. Since it’s free to watch any and all of Netflix’s instant content, it compliments my TV very well with content that’s just not offered by Apple (yet).
Not a good day for the poor sucker who manages MS’s Zune Store.
Apple WINS!!
Time 4 Months
Songs Sold 1 Billion
Revenue stream 33 cents per song to Apple
1,000,000,000 * $0.33 = $330,000,000 / 4 months = $82,500,000 per month in revenue.
I think that says it all.
Didn’t they announce 4 billion on January 9th at MacWorld?
@Ha, ha,
You think you’re Zune Tang, but you’re not!
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MCCFR:
”I spoke to Steve, Phil, Tim and the boys….”
Liar, pathetic liar, transparent liar.
”… and they agreed that they should publish all of that market-sensitive information about how many models they sell right down to which options customers choose.”
So, Apple ONLY announces news that benefits the propagandists and market fixers. That is, Apple is reluctant to reveal any information that doesn’t promote the myth of perpetual positive slope.
”About the time that Microsoft publishes honest statistics about how many Vista and Windows Mobile licences are actually in use by real users as opposed to locked up in a safe at an OEM manufacturer in Taiwan. And also about the time that HP, Dell and the rest of the WinDell gang do the same thing.”
According to you, Apple should be as dishonest, disreputable, fraudulent, corrupt, unethical, untrustworthy, deceitful, and unscrupulous as others. Well, you must be right! By the way, that was the same point I was making. Thanks for agreeing with me.
Maybe Apple should change its motto from “Think Different” to “We perform as well as Microsoft and Dell, really.”.
Can these morons now stop giving ATV such a hard time on the net. You know who you are your moronic bloggers. You just got “OWNED”!!!! I hate using that alternate geek word… LOL
HMCIV:
“You think you’re Zune Tang,…”
Never said I was.
“but you’re not!”
Thanks for the compliment!
@haha….
“”I spoke to Steve, Phil, Tim and the boys….”
Liar, pathetic liar, transparent liar.”
It’s called hyperbole… look it up.
Wow, Mr ‘ha ha’ found a thesaurus.
Poor sucker shouldn’t be laughing.
I’m sorry I’m being so rude.
I’m just coming to terms with my latent homosexuality.
It makes me feel good to troll mac sites and goad the commenters.
Makes me feel important.
Ha ha:
Thanks for sharing.
There’s a helpline available if you need to talk.
You don’t have to go through this alone.
@Ha, Ha
You didn’t have to say it. My new MacBook Air can read your mind!!!! That’s also how I knew about you coming to terms with the latent thesaurus thing.
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Jim-TIV,
Hyperbole (noun), the practice of idiocy employed by Apple fanbois when facts and common sense escape them.
Bertrand Fan,
But I am laughing… at you, too.