Apple Sells Its 500 Millionth Track -- Apple announced that it sold the 500 millionth track via its iTunes Music Store on 17-Jul-05: the song was "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill, and Apple's giveaway winner is Amy Greer from Lafayette, Indiana. She'll receive 10 iPods of her choosing, an iTMS gift card for 10,000 songs, and a free trip for four to see the band Coldplay perform. For the interminably curious, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store over two years ago in late April 2003, but just crossed the 300-million-downloads mark in March of this year. If iTMS's sales remained flat, Apple could expect to sell its one-billionth track in about a year; however, the iPod's still-growing sales and popularity will probably bring that date much closer. [GD]

<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jul/ 18itms.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/08166>