Apple’s popular online music store iTunes has hit a major milestone, with the 10 billionth song downloaded sometime on Wednesday.
The landmark download was Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen That Way,” Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) said.
The 10 billion mark comes a little more than a year and a half after iTunes sold its 5 billionth song.
Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Ga., stands to receive a $10,000 gift card to the iTunes store for downloading he 10 billionth song, Apple said.
“We’re grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone,” Apple Vice President Eddy Cue said in a statement. “We’re proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering.”
As part of its 10 billion countdown, Apple ranked the most popular songs of the iTunes era. The most downloaded song is the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeing.” The group also took the No. 3 spot on the list with “Boom Boom Pow.” Checking in at No. 2 on the list was Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face,” with Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” and Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” taking the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.
Apple debuted its online music shop seven years ago, selling 1 million downloads in its first week. In the time since, iTunes has galloped to the top of the digital music realm, outselling by a large margin competitors such as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT).
In the meantime, iTunes has been looking to expand its offerings beyond online music. The site has reportedly been in talks with entertainment studios to roll out a TV service based on a $30 monthly subscription model.
Apple began offering Web TV content in 2005 through a deal with Disney-ABC. TV shows are currently available on iTunes for $2.99, and Apple also offers season-long subscription passes to certain programming.
Kenneth Corbin is an associate editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.