James Delahunty
31 Jul 2007 11:41
Apple Inc.'s iTunes download store has sold over 3 billion legal music downloads since the service first launched in April 2003. This latest milestones comes six months after Apple announced it had sold 2 billion songs in total. It has reached its first billion sales by February 2006. Its success earned it the title of the third largest music retailer in the U.S., behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy Co.
The NPD Group determined this ranking based on units sold and not on revenues. The firm counted every 12 tracks purchased online as being the equivalent of an album bought on a physical CD. The success of the iTunes store relies heavily on Apple's iPod line-up.
Back in April, the company announced that it had sold 100 million iPods. Due to DRM restrictions, music bought from the iTunes music store (unless DRM-free at a premium rate) can only be played back on an iPod, making it the only legitimate, fully authorized resource for iPod owners to get major label music online.
Source:
Yahoo (AP)