by , 8:35 AM EST, March 2nd, 2005
Customers of Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) have purchased and downloaded more than 300 million songs, the company announced Wednesday.
In addition, the company said the single "Across the Universe" to benefit survivors of the Asian tsunami and which is only available through the iTMS, debuted at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, making it the most successful exclusive digital track ever in its first week of release.
Apple last reported it surpassed 250 million in online music sales on January 24, meaning the company has sold some 1.3 million songs daily in the last 38 days.
The iTMS is available for Mac and Windows personal computers and works exclusively with Apple's line of iPod digital media devices. The iTMS is available in 15 countries. In the U.S., the service features more than one million songs.
| iTunes Music Store Key Dates | |
|---|---|
| April 28, 2003 | Apple Launches iTunes Music Store |
| May 6, 2003 | One million songs sold on iTMS |
| May 14, 2003 | Two million songs sold on iTMS |
| June 23, 2003 | Five million songs sold on iTMS |
| September 8, 2003 | Ten million songs sold on iTMS |
| October 16, 2003 | Apple & Pepsi launch giveaway of 100 million free songs |
| October 20, 2003 | One million copies of iTunes for Windows downloaded in less than four days |
| November 6, 2003 | 1.5 million songs sold on iTMS in one week |
| December 15, 2003 | 25 million songs sold on iTMS |
| March 15, 2004 | 50 million songs sold on iTMS |
| April 28, 2004 | Over 70 million songs sold on iTMS |
| May 5, 2004 | 3.3 million songs sold on iTMS in one week |
| June 15, 2004 | Apple launches iTMS in UK, France & Germany |
| June 23, 2004 | iTMS in Europe sells 800,000 songs in first week |
| July 12, 2004 | 100 million songs sold on iTMS |
| August 10, 2004 | iTMS catalog tops one million songs |
| October 14, 2004 | 150 million songs sold on iTMS |
| October 26, 2004 | Apple launches iTMS in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain |
| November 30, 2004 | Apple launches iTMS in Canada |
| December 16, 2004 | 200 million songs sold on iTMS |
| January 6, 2005 | Apple launches iTMS in Ireland |
| January 24, 2005 | 250 million songs sold on iTMS | March 2, 2005 | 300 million songs sold on iTMS |