Apple begins iTunes countdown to half a billion tunes
Apple today kicked off its countdown to half a billion songs sold on the iTunes Music Store with an online song counter so music fans around the world can participate in the race to purchase and download the 500 millionth song.
As part of the countdown, Apple is giving away an iPod mini and an iTunes gift card for 50 songs to the iTunes customer who purchases the winning song at each 100,000 interval. The person who downloads the 500 millionth song will win the grand prize?10 iPods of their choice to share with family and friends, an iTunes gift card for 10,000 songs and an all-expenses paid trip for four to see Coldplay on their world tour.
Apple today also announced the availability of ?Sgt. Pepper?s Lonely Hearts Club Band? and ?The Long and Winding Road? on the iTunes Music Store. Both songs were recorded live at this past weekend?s Live 8 benefit concerts featuring U2 and Sir Paul McCartney. Proceeds from the sales of these one-time-only performances will benefit debt relief in Africa.
?As we prepare to cross this major milestone of half a billion songs, we want to thank our customers, the artists and the music labels who have helped make iTunes a global success,? said Eddy Cue, Apple?s vice president of applications. ?iTunes continues to be the world?s number one online music store featuring the world?s best digital music including special performances such as the Live 8 concerts.?
The iTunes Music Store features more than 1.5 million songs from the major music companies and over 1,000 independent record labels, 10,000 audiobooks, gift certificates and exclusive music not found anywhere else online.
As part of the countdown, Apple is giving away an iPod mini and an iTunes gift card for 50 songs to the iTunes customer who purchases the winning song at each 100,000 interval. The person who downloads the 500 millionth song will win the grand prize?10 iPods of their choice to share with family and friends, an iTunes gift card for 10,000 songs and an all-expenses paid trip for four to see Coldplay on their world tour.
Apple today also announced the availability of ?Sgt. Pepper?s Lonely Hearts Club Band? and ?The Long and Winding Road? on the iTunes Music Store. Both songs were recorded live at this past weekend?s Live 8 benefit concerts featuring U2 and Sir Paul McCartney. Proceeds from the sales of these one-time-only performances will benefit debt relief in Africa.
?As we prepare to cross this major milestone of half a billion songs, we want to thank our customers, the artists and the music labels who have helped make iTunes a global success,? said Eddy Cue, Apple?s vice president of applications. ?iTunes continues to be the world?s number one online music store featuring the world?s best digital music including special performances such as the Live 8 concerts.?
The iTunes Music Store features more than 1.5 million songs from the major music companies and over 1,000 independent record labels, 10,000 audiobooks, gift certificates and exclusive music not found anywhere else online.
Comments
Originally posted by CosmoNut
No. The widget download thingy is still there.
At least Apple is advertising the more secure parts of Mac OS X, they had me worried for a second!
Originally posted by danielctull
And so Apple's front page is all iTunes/iPod... The way of things for the next year?
So much for the "Year of HD."
:P
Originally posted by hmurchison
Well it certainly isn't the year of Powerbook G5s
:P
Yea,
Apple today kicked off its countdown to half a billion songs sold on the iTunes Music Store with an online song counter so music fans around the world can participate in the race to purchase and download the 500 millionth song.
Race to be the biggest sucker? Apple is getting REALLY good at that lately!
No wonder I recently saw Steve on a brand new SL AMG with the top down rolling down Page Mill.
Originally posted by schmidm77
Wow, and they finally have two Beatles songs for download as well.
Two? They have a whole album!
[Edit: and its $5.99 for the album of 15 songs]
Originally posted by icfireball
Two? They have a whole album!
[Edit: and its $5.99 for the album of 15 songs]
Ain't that some karaoke record?
Originally posted by sCreeD
I witnessed the counter accelerate as it approached a 100,000, so it's feeding off of some data.
Hmm, I dunno. If you put a browser window of the Apple home page (http://www.apple.com/) and a window of the 500 Million Songs page (http://www.apple.com/itunes/500million/) next to each other, the counts differ. Mustn't be the same data.
Originally posted by damiansipko
Hmm, I dunno. If you put a browser window of the Apple home page (http://www.apple.com/) and a window of the 500 Million Songs page (http://www.apple.com/itunes/500million/) next to each other, the counts differ. Mustn't be the same data.
It depends on when you load the page. There is a slight delay on load.
Originally posted by icfireball
It depends on when you load the page. There is a slight delay on load.
I guess you're right. Refreshing the pages almost simultaneously results in almost nearly the same figures.
i know apple execs have said they break about even with slight profits on the ITMS. i doubt this.
think about it... 500,000,000 songs = roughly $500,000,000
operation costs are probably minimal (esspecially with free xserves). yes im aware that like apple only gets a few cents per song... i think its like 5-9cents? im not sure. in any event, even at a worst case of 5 cents... thats $25,000,000 (edited). Thats a chuck of change for a program that really only became a household name in Q1 of this year. at this rate if it isnt as profitable as i believe (probably making around 15-20 mil for the company, this year), it will be soon.
Originally posted by damiansipko
I guess you're right. Refreshing the pages almost simultaneously results in almost nearly the same figures.
The counter accelerates at a fixed rate and then syncs up to the real number every minute or two. The counter at spreadfirefox.com works the same way.
Originally posted by mike12309
think about it... 500,000,000 songs = roughly $500,000,000
----
in any event, even at a worst case of 5 cents... thats $250,000,000.
I think you'll find 500 million times 5 cents is $25,000,000.
Personally, I would consider $25million for the last 2 and a bit years income from a program is pretty good, but I'm not expert (any experts around?) They are likely to crack 500m within a week. May 10th was 400m. So two months is 100m tracks, that's $5million by our rough figures.
iDunno