Sometime during the early morning hours, Apple’s iTunes service reached a milestone as the one billionth song was downloaded.
WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Alex Ostrovsky got more than he bargained for when downloading Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound” from the iTunes Music Store.
The 16-year-old’s purchase was the one billionth song bought from the online music service that Apple Computer Inc. kicked off three years ago, charging 99 cents for most tracks. Ostrovsky’s selection was from Coldplay’s “X&Y” album
The iTunes Music Store became reality in April 2003 with Version 4.0. In less than three years, they have achieved what it took McDonald’s eight years to accomplish, and there’s no sign of the trend slowing down.
Meanwhile, other segments of the music industry are feeling the heat in a way that makes the Napster “crisis” look small by comparison:
The growing popularity of purchasing songs by the track shows in declining CD sales. A total of 618.9 million CD albums were sold during 2005, down from the 762.8 million in 2001, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
That’s a decline of of nearly 20 percent over 5 years. By all accounts, this trend only looks like it will increase.
Technorati Tags: iTunes, Ipod, MP3, music
