iTunes' store 50 million downloads!

LOS ANGELES (Apple announcement) - Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over 50 million songs from Apple's iTunes Music Store, not including songs redeemed from the currently-running Pepsi iTunes promotion. The 50 millionth song, purchased last Thursday afternoon, was "The Path of Thorns" by Sarah McLachlan. iTunes users are now downloading 2.5 million songs per week, which is an annual run rate of 130 million songs per year.
"Crossing 50 million songs is a major milestone for iTunes and the emerging digital music era," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "With over 50 million songs already downloaded and an additional 2.5 million songs being downloaded every week, it's increasingly difficult to imagine others ever catching up with iTunes."

Apple is the only company to offer a complete solution for buying, managing and listening to digital music anywhere with the unique combination of the iTunes digital music jukebox software, the pioneering iTunes Music Store and the market-leading iPod and iPod mini digital music players. All work seamlessly together to make the new digital music era accessible to everyone.

The iTunes Music Store offers Windows and Mac users the industry's largest online music catalog of over 500,000 songs, industry-leading personal use rights and uniform 99 cents-per-song pricing. With exclusive tracks from more than 150 artists, the iTunes Music Store offers music from all five major music companies and over 300 independent music labels. Plus more than 5,000 audiobooks, online gift certificates, Apple's patent-pending "Allowance" feature which lets parents automatically deposit funds into their kids' iTunes Music Store account every month, Celebrity Playlists, iTunes Essentials and Billboard Charts.