Apple Announces 25 Billion Songs Sold in iTunes Music Store - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Apple Announces 25 Billion Songs Sold in iTunes Music Store

by

Apple today announced that the iTunes Store has reached a new milestone, passing 25 billion songs downloaded. Interestingly, Apple also announced that it has awarded a €10,000 iTunes Gift Card to the user who downloaded the milestone song even though the company did not run a high-profile promotion for the contest as it has for past music and app milestones.

The 25 billionth song, “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch, was purchased by Phillip Lüpke from Germany. As the downloader of the 25 billionth song, Phillip will receive a €10,000 iTunes® Gift Card.

“We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “Averaging over 15,000 songs downloaded per minute, the iTunes Store connects music fans with their favorite artists, including global sensations like Adele and Coldplay and new artists like The Lumineers, on a scale we never imagined possible.”

itunes_store_killers
Apple notes that the iTunes Store now offers over 26 million songs and is available in 119 countries after December's expansion to 56 new countries.

Popular Stories

iOS 27 Next to iPhone

Here's When iOS 27 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: It's Out]

Sunday September 13, 2026 3:00 am PDT by
Update 10:04 a.m.: iOS 27 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event...
Read Full Article • 151 comments
iOS 27 Icon iPhone

iOS 27 Available Now With These 8 New Features

Monday September 14, 2026 9:00 am PDT by
Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27. During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update. Below, we have highlighted eight new features and...
Read Full Article • 111 comments
Apple iCloud Plus expansion hero

iCloud+ Now Includes Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and Curated Apple Music Stations in Over 100 Countries

Tuesday September 15, 2026 1:43 am PDT by
Apple today announced a new subscription initiative that turns paid iCloud+ subscriptions into a broader services bundle in more than 100 countries. In select countries, Apple says every paid iCloud+ plan, including the cheapest 50GB tier, now includes Apple TV and Apple Arcade "at no additional cost," while family sharing extends the storage, TV and Arcade access to up to five people....
Read Full Article • 106 comments

Top Rated Comments

ouimetnick Avatar
ouimetnick
178 months ago
One morning an Apple engineer was checking on iTunes stats. He noticed the songs downloaded was rapidly approaching 25 Billion. He gave his boss a call. Hey Eddy he said. We are approaching 25 billion songs downloaded. Wow! Eddy remarked. He was pretty excited and happy. He was just promoted and got a pay raise. "I'll let Tim and Phil know" Eddy said as he hung up the phone.

Tim and Phil were at the Apple cafeteria waiting in line for their sushi breakfast when all of a sudden Tim's phone started blazing out Green Day's new song, Fell for you. Phil, startled asked what that was. Tim exclaimed it is his ringtone that goes off only when Eddy calls. Tim answered and annoyed, asked Eddy "What now"? Tim had only had 3 hours of sleep from coming back from China. We are only minutes away from 25 billion downloads Eddy said excitedly! Thats great! Tim replied. This news put a smile on Tim's face knowing that they are reaching another milestone. I'll call you back when the 25 billionth song is downlo…We NEED a prize to give the guy Tim interrupted. Right said Eddy. We can just do a gift card like we have done okay? Thats good exclaimed Tim.

About 30 minutes later, the phone went off again. Tim knew what he was about to hear.
A guy from Germany downloaded a song called "Monkey Drums"… Thats the 25 billionth song. Tim slightly saddened mentioned that he wished it was a Green Day song or a Lady Gaga song that was the 25 billionth downloaded.

Tim sighed "Well, send the info to the PR department".
Will do Eddy said with enthusiasm.

Eddy happily hung up and called PR. We got 25 billion sings downloaded. It was Phillip Lüpke from Germany who has a fetish for Monkeys. He downloaded Monkey Drums. Issue a press release immediately. We are sending him EUR10,000 iTunes Card. He should be set for life on iTunes downloads. He said happily.

A PR was issued, and thus MacRumors reported on it.
__________________

25 Billion. Wow. The App Store is still climbing faster though.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
5
576316
178 months ago
Since using Spotify, I haven't bought music from iTunes in ages... maybe not even one song in the last year.. Still an impressive number though! :)

I used to pay for Spotify but I soon realised I wasn't using £10 worth of songs each month to make it worth paying for. So I now only buy songs from iTunes/Amazon MP3 which I know I will listen to a lot.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kirky29 Avatar
kirky29
178 months ago
Since using Spotify, I haven't bought music from iTunes in ages... maybe not even one song in the last year.. Still an impressive number though! :)
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
J
Jugney
178 months ago
I was curious when their last milestone was, to see the rate of purchases on the iTunes store...a Google search revealed they announced 20 billion back in September.

That means it took them 11 years to sell the first 20 billion. And 5 months to sell a quarter again of that.

I would have thought it was slowing with Spotify and other services on the rise. But the above figures mean music purchases on iTunes are accelerating.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ebow Avatar
ebow
178 months ago
I was curious when their last milestone was, to see the rate of purchases on the iTunes store...a Google search revealed they announced 20 billion back in September.

That means it took them 11 years to sell the first 20 billion. And 5 months to sell a quarter again of that.

I would have thought it was slowing with Spotify and other services on the rise. But the above figures mean music purchases on iTunes are accelerating.

Your numbers are a bit off, but your conclusion is spot-on. The iTunes Music Store launched on 28 April 2003, so it has been open for almost, but not quite, 10 years now.

I've been tracking Apple's milestone announcements since the store launched (don't ask me why, I really don't know). Overall they've sold 7 million songs per day since launch, which is up from the 5.84 million per day as of Sept 2012 (when they reached 20 billion). The recent pace, though, has really accelerated. They've sold 34 million songs per day since last Sept's announcement. Before that, the pace was 10-11 million per day.

See the included screenshot of my nerdtastic spreadsheet. :o
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
T
Thunderhawks
178 months ago
phillip lüpke is lucky. I wonder what other good things have happened to him lately?

he has health insurance
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments