February 23, 2010: The iTunes Store has officially surpassed 10 billion music downloads, a major milestone. Ten billion purchase? “Guess That’s the Way Things Happen” by Johnny Cash.
The buyer of the song is Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia. As part of Apple’s “Countdown to 10 Billion Songs” promotion, Sulcer is winning a massive $10,000 iTunes Store gift card. He also got a phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs for a good cause!
iTunes hits 10 billion downloads
In the spring of 2010, Apple’s digital music market reshaped the global music business. In less than seven years, the iTunes Music Store has transformed from an ambitious anti-piracy struggle into a cultural and commercial juggernaut.
Reaching (and celebrating) the 10 billion song milestone was more than just a nice promo. He highlighted Apple’s rapid rise to become the world’s largest music seller. The company has proven that a la carte digital sales of songs are the way of the future – at least until streaming comes along.
A surprising phone call from Steve Jobs
Sulcer, a father of three and grandfather of nine, who downloaded the 10 billionth song, later said Rolling Stone he was unaware of Apple’s highly publicized competition when he downloaded the song. He bought the song for a Johnny Cash mixtape he was making for his son.
When Steve Jobs personally called him that he had won, Sulcer initially did not believe that the Apple co-founder was on the other end of the line.
“He called me and said, ‘That’s Steve Jobs from Apple.’ I said, ‘Yeah, right,'” Sulcer told the magazine. “I have a son who likes to play tricks and he does it every now and then – he calls me and imitates someone.”
After questioning the caller’s identity several times, Sulcer finally noticed that the caller ID was “Apple”. Only then did he begin to believe that the call might be genuine.
iTunes downloads reach record numbers
February 2010 was a big month for the iTunes Store as it officially became the largest music retailer in the world.
But the song’s 10 billionth iTunes download wasn’t the first sales milestone Apple has extravagantly celebrated for its online music store platform. On December 15, 2003—about eight months after the launch of the iTunes Music Store—Apple hit 25 million downloads. The winner at the time? A cover of Frank Sinatra’s Christmas classic “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
Less than a year later, on July 12, 2004, Apple sold its 100 millionth track: “Somersault (Dangermouse remix) by Zero 7”, which was purchased by Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas.
Like Sulcer, Britten received a $10,000 iTunes Store gift card and a personal phone call from Jobs. (Britten also won a 17-inch PowerBook.)
Apple avoids statistics
Today, Apple mostly avoids making a big deal out of its sales milestones. They no longer report individual iPhone sales. Even as Apple surpassed 1 billion iPhones sold, it did little to commemorate the occasion. (In 2023, Apple said its user base would reach an astonishing 2 billion active devices, but that revelation came in its quarterly earnings press release. That number has now risen to more than 2.5 billion.)
The company also seems a bit shy on the Apple Watch, Apple Music and other sales fronts. The same goes for viewership numbers for Apple TV+. Apple says it sees this information as competitive — and doesn’t want to keep improving.
Do you remember your first iTunes song purchase? Leave your comments below.
