The Race to the 100,000,000 iTunes Song Sold
By Trevor Harrison

July 13th, 2004

On July 1st, Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) was just over 5 million songs away from reaching the 100 million download mark. Starting at the 95 millionth song sold, on every 100th thousandth song, Apple gave away a 20GB iPod. On the 100 millionth song, Apple gave away a 17-inch PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs to create the ultimate music library for the iPod and the opportunity to create a Celebrity Playlist to be published on the iTunes Music Store. Well, that 100 Millionth song mark was passed just a few minutes ago as of this writing at 10:20-10:25 p.m. Pacific, Sunday July 11, 2004.

I tuned in to check it out around 10:15 p.m. and the counter on Apple's site was at 99,992,000. By the time the next live update was on Apple's site, 5 minutes later, 100.014.000 songs where sold. That's over 22,000 songs in less than 5 minutes! Congratulation's Apple on reaching 100,000,000 songs sold through the iTunes Music Store.

Since its launch on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store has broadened from a Mac-only service to a multi-platform mega-store, serving the U.S., Canada, and recently Europe. It now boasts a 70% share of all legally downloaded music.