iTunes Music Store Downloads Top 50 Million Songs

iTunes Music Store Downloads Top 50 Million Songs

CUPERTINO, California‹March 15, 2004‹Apple® today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over 50 million songs from Apple¹s iTunes® Music Store, not including songs redeemed from the currently-running Pepsi iTunes promotion. The 50 millionth song, purchased last Thursday afternoon, was ³The Path of Thorns² 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.

³Crossing 50 million songs is a major milestone for iTunes and the emerging digital music era,² said Steve Jobs, Apple¹s CEO. ³With over 50 million songs already downloaded and an additional 2.5 million songs being downloaded every week, it¹s increasingly difficult to imagine others ever catching up with iTunes.²

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 (in the USA only) the industry¹s largest online music catalogue of over 500,000 songs, industry-leading personal use rights and uniform 99 cents-per-song (US$) 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, Apple¹s patent-pending ³Allowance² feature which lets parents automatically deposit funds into their kids¹ iTunes Music Store account every month, Celebrity Playlists, iTunes Essentials and Billboard Charts.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.

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