Apple tops 5 billion mark in iTunes sales
When the iTunes Store was first introduced (hey, remember when it was called the iTunes Music Store and all you could buy were DRMed music tracks? Those were the days) I thought people wouldn't spend much money there. Sure, it was pretty and easy to use but people don't want DRM laced music, thought I. Clearly, as with many things in my life, I was totally wrong. Apple just announced that people have downloaded over 5 billion songs from iTunes (notice they say 'downloaded,' and not 'bought.' This number includes all those freebies we list, as well as any promotional freebies Apple hands out with partners). Any way you slice it, that's a lot of songs.
Apple also said that people are renting and downloading over 50,000 movies a day. Not too shabby, given the greater expense and file sizes involved with movie transactions on iTunes.
Thanks, Cameron!
_thumbnail.jpg "Take a stroll down memory lane")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Galley said 10:04AM on 6-19-2008
8 million songs and I still can’t find what I’m looking for.
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Matthew said 10:32AM on 6-19-2008
From the wording of the press release, I believe the 5 million refers to songs 'sold', and doesn't include freebies.
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Mike said 10:33AM on 6-19-2008
I work for the iTunes Store and we do get TONNES of movie rentals and purchases. Way more than anyone anticipated
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Matthew said 10:33AM on 6-19-2008
I meant 5 billion, not million!
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Ryan said 12:34PM on 6-19-2008
Sad thing is, there are too many consumers out there who have no idea what DRM means, so they just bought the music without knowing. If consumers were wise, maybe the sales number wouldn't be so high.
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Gordy said 2:15PM on 6-19-2008
If consumers felt restricted, they would have noticed. As I suspected way back when, Apple's FairPlay DRM is pretty flexible.
Frank said 3:45PM on 6-19-2008
i agree with Gordy. i know exactly what DRM is, and i don't feel restricted by apple's setup at all.
JohnPQ said 8:41PM on 6-19-2008
Great! Now wake me up when thy update the Mac mini.
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Austin Chu said 10:31AM on 6-20-2008
Apple rules. I work for a company that manages and tracks gift cards, and we blogged about the 5 billion mark as well on savvywallet.com. One thing that I've noticed, is that itunes gift cards sales are still going strong. With Apple's new multi use gift card holder, who knows what numbers they will hit. Even though, itunes has some restrictions, people don't mind. You don't necessarily pay for the song, you pay for the service and quality of Apple products. itunes rules.
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Fisk said 6:25PM on 6-21-2008
Is there any data on how many iPods Apple sold until today?
Would be most welcome for my term paper…
Thanks!
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