Apple has revealed that a new landmark of 25bn has been reached in terms of the number of songs sold on its iTunes music store.
The 25 billionth song Monkey Drums (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch, was purchased by Phillip Lüpke from Germany, who will receive a US$10,000 iTunes Gift Card.
iTunes evolved out of SoundJam, which was created by Bill Kincaid in 1999. It was renamed iTunes when Apple acquired it in 2000. iTunes 1.0 was unveiled at MacWorld in 2001 originally as an application for Mac OS9. Version 2.0, released nine months later, added support for the original iPod and version 4.0 in April 2003 added support for Windows.
Today, iTunes works across Mac, PC and various iOS devices, like the iPod, iPad and iPhone, as well as the Apple TV.
The online music store has a catalogue of 26m tracks and is available in 119 countries.
“We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the No 1 music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice-president of Internet Software and Services.
“Averaging over 15,000 songs downloaded per minute, the iTunes store connects music fans with their favourite 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 levelled the playing field for musicians,” chimed in Wesley Schultz, guitarist and lead vocalist of The Lumineers.
“Whether you’re unsigned, indie, major, whatever – it’s the place most people go to buy digital music.
“iTunes doesn’t exclude any musicians simply because they’re not yet established or popular,” Schultz said.
Last month, Apple revealed that it exceeded 40bn apps downloaded from its App Store, with 500m active user accounts confirmed.
