iTunes hits 100 million
In an indication of just how far ahead of the game the US is in terms of music downloading, iTunes has just announced its 100 millionth downloaded track. Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas downloaded Somersault (Dangermous remix) by Zero 7 which happened to be the 100 millionth track. In return he’ll receive a 17inch PowerBook, a 40Gb iPod and a gift certificate for 10,000 iTunes songs – not a bad return just for downloading a track off the net.
OK the whole thing’s a marketing stunt, and a not particularly original one at that, but it serves to highlight just how popular music downloading has become in the US and how well iTunes is doing in particular. Sony will really have to get its skates on if it hopes to catch up with Connect (www.connect.com). It has just soft launched the European version of the service (www.connect-europe.com) but will not launch its own iPod device until the Autumn by which time Apple will probably be announcing its 200 millionth download and a new mini mini iPod! The race is on.
