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iTunes serves up billionth song
Apple touts milestone by showering lucky downloader of Coldplay's X&Y with a hefty grab bag of gifts, including 10 iPods and a $10,000 iTunes gift card.
Michigan resident Alex Ostrovsky drew the golden ticket this week, but instead of a tour of the house that Steve built, he's getting a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth-generation iPods, and a $10,000 gift card good for any item in the iTunes Music Store.
Ostrovsky downloaded the one billionth song on iTunes, helping Steve Jobs' Apple reach a milestone that serves as yet another reminder how much of a lead iTunes has over its digital music service competitors. Apple began the countdown earlier this month.
Coldplay's
X&Y
Just before 10 p.m. Pacific Time Wednesday night, Ostrovsky downloaded Coldplay's X&Y, and the track "Speed of Sound" clicked over as the billionth download. In addition to the goodies, Apple also created a scholarship fund for the Juilliard School of Music in Ostrovsky's name.
"I hope that every customer, artist, and music company executive takes a moment today to reflect on what we've achieved together during the past three years," Jobs said in a statement. "Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet."
Apple said iTunes hit 100 million songs in July of 2004, and passed the 200 million mark by the end of the year. iTunes sold its 500 millionth song on July 17, 2005, and hit the billion mark seven months later.
Apple also took the opportunity that it has now sold 15 million video downloads, part of its growing focus on adding video content to its store. Earlier this week, the company said it is selling the first episode of the NBC show Conviction for the two weeks before it airs on NBC.
The company will reportedly add to its growing line of portable devices at an invitation-only event at its campus in Cupertino, California, on February 28.
Chipmaker PortalPlayer, which derives the bulk of its business from supplying chips to iPods, unveiled a processor that enables personal media devices with Wi-Fi capabilities at the 3GSM World Congress earlier this month. That has caused rumors to circulate that the next iPod could have Wi-Fi capabilities.
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