February 23, 2010: The iTunes Retailer formally passes the ten billion music downloads mark, reaching a serious milestone. The ten billionth buy? “Guess Issues Occur That Means” by Johnny Money.
The client of the track in query is Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. As a part of a “Countdown to 10 Billion Songs” promotion by Apple, Sulcer wins a large $10,000 iTunes Retailer present card. He additionally receives a private telephone name from Apple CEO Steve Jobs for good measure!
iTunes hits 10 billion downloads
By the spring of 2010, Apple’s digital music market had reshaped the worldwide music enterprise. In just below seven years, the iTunes Music Retailer had turned an formidable struggle in opposition to piracy right into a cultural and industrial juggernaut.
Hitting (and celebrating) the ten billion track milestone was greater than a really feel‑good promo. It highlighted Apple’s fast rise to turn into the world’s largest music retailer. The corporate had proved that digital gross sales of a la carte tracks was the way in which of the longer term — not less than till streaming got here alongside.
A shock name from Steve Jobs
Sulcer, the daddy of three and grandfather of 9 who downloaded the ten billionth observe, later advised Rolling Stone he was unaware of Apple’s extremely publicized competitors when he downloaded the observe. He purchased the track for a Johnny Money mixtape he was making for his son.
When Steve Jobs personally phoned him to say he’d received, Sulcer initially didn’t consider the Apple co-founder was on the opposite finish of the road.
“He known as me and stated, ‘That is Steve Jobs from Apple.’ I stated, ‘Yeah proper,’” Sulcer advised the journal. “I’ve a son that likes to play tips and he does that from time to time — calls me and imitates someone.”
After questioning the caller’s id a number of instances, Sulcer finally observed that the caller ID learn “Apple.” Solely then did he begin to consider the decision is perhaps real.
iTunes downloads attain record-breaking numbers
February 2010 was a giant month for the iTunes Retailer, because it formally turned the most important music vendor worldwide.
The ten billionth iTunes track obtain wasn’t the primary gross sales landmark Apple celebrated extravagantly for its on-line music retailer platform, although. On December 15, 2003 — about eight months after the iTunes Music Retailer’s launch — Apple marked its 25 millionth obtain. The winner that point? A Frank Sinatra cowl of the Christmas traditional “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
Lower than a yr later, on July 12, 2004, Apple offered its 100 millionth track: Zero 7’s “Somersault (Dangermouse remix),” bought by Kevin Britten from Hays, Kansas.
Like Sulcer, Britten obtained a $10,000 iTunes Retailer present card and a private telephone name from Jobs. (Britten additionally received a 17-inch PowerBook.)
Apple clams up about stats
Right now, Apple largely avoids making a giant deal out of its gross sales landmarks. It not reviews particular person iPhone gross sales. Even when Apple handed the 1 billionth iPhone offered, it did little to commemorate the event. (In 2023, Apple talked about that its person base hit an astonishing 2 billion lively units, however that revelation got here in a press launch about quarterly earnings. That quantity has now risen to 2.5 billion-plus.)
The corporate additionally appears a bit shy on Apple Watch, Apple Music and different gross sales fronts. Similar goes for viewership numbers for Apple TV+. Apple says it views this info as aggressive — and doesn’t need to continually one-up itself.
Do you bear in mind what your first iTunes track buy was? Go away your feedback beneath.
