Apple has now sold over five billion songs from its iTunes music store. The program has been around since early 2001. Earlier this year, iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart as the most popular place to buy music. Apple still hasn’t figured out how to sell Drakkar Noir for under $40 through its store but, still, five billion songs is impressive.
It’ll be interesting to see how long iTunes will be able to retain this title, with competitors like Amazon’s MP3 store gaining traction. In fact, Amazon just unveiled special deals — today’s deal is Coldplay’s Parachutes album for $1.99 – and has embraced variable pricing (popular tracks cost more, allowing certain tracks and albums like the ones found in the “deals” section to cost less), something Apple’s refused to do thus far. Still, five billion songs is nothing to sneeze at.