Apple sure loves them some milestones. Not long ago they were touting the billionth download from their “game-changing” App Store, and now their ubiquitous iTunes store is about to hit 10 billion songs sold. Take that, App Store!
The sheer volume of music sold through Apple’s service is certainly mind boggling, but what might be even more interesting is the list of most-downloaded songs. Many of the singles, like The Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling,” Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” and Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok,” were released just last year or the year before. Since the iTunes store opened in 2003, that means those tracks sold better in a year (in some cases less) than songs that have been around for seven. It appears the digital download market continues to gain momentum and that Apple may be celebrating many more milestones to come. Perhaps the iPad will shock us all by selling 10 trillion units in its first month.
Apple plans to show its appreciation for all the good fortune by giving away a $10,000 iTunes gift certificate to the lucky shopper who pushes them past the mark. That may seem like a lot, until you realize you could spend it all and only fill up a quarter of a 160GB iPod classic.
Here’s the list of the all-time best sellers on iTunes (courtesy of Digital Music News):
01. Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling”
02. Lady Gaga, “Poker Face”
03. Black Eyed Peas, “Boom Boom Pow”
04. Jason Mraz, “I’m Yours”
05. Coldplay, “Viva la Vida”
06. Lady Gaga & Colby O’Donis, “Just Dance”
07. Flo Rida, “Low feat. T-Pain”
08. Taylor Swift, “Love Story”
09. Leona Lewis, “Bleeding Love”
10. Ke$ha, “Tik Tok”
11. Fat Worm of Error, “Let’s Fool the Meat to the Hassle Room”
