Apple recently announced that the iTunes Music Store had sold 25 billion songs, which is a big deal. For being the downloader of the 25 billionth song — Monkey Drums (Goksel Vancin Remix) — a German guy received a €10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Get the iTunes Top 10 fun facts, and a few more, that flesh out the back story of Apple’s incredible success:

• 25 millionth song (2003) — Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, Frank Sinatra
• 100 millionth (2004) — Somersault (Dangermouse Remix), Zero 7
• 500 millionth (2005) — Mississippi Girl, Faith Hill
• 1 billionth song (2006) — Speed of Sound, Coldplay
• 10 billionth (2010) — Guess Things Happen That Way, Johnny Cash
— For the 10 billionth download, Alex Ostrovsky received a 20-inch iMac, 10 5G iPods and a $10,000 iTunes card

25 billion is a huge number, but parsing it a few ways brings perspective on how just large that number really it is. For example, there are about 7 billion on planet earth, meaning Apple has sold about 3.6 songs for every man, woman and child that breaths.

iTunes Music Store: Tops the Pops

Running with the parsing thing — don’t try this at home, kids… Bing Crosby’s White Christmas is the best-selling song of all time at 100 million units (all formats), which is just 1/250th of Apple’s total.

In a similar vein, Michael Jackson’s Thriller has sold 42 million copies, a mere 1/600th of the iTunes Store’s total.

For what it’s worth, the most downloaded iTunes song ever is the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling — read the full all-time iTunes Top 10 best seller list.

How does Apple do it? Since 2001, the company has sold more than 350 million iPods and over 500 million iPhones, iPod touches and iPads since 2007. Yes, there’s a little overlap there, but the overall total is around 800 million devices that play iTunes Music Store tracks, which in turn are available in 119 countries.

As Steve Jobs might have said, “Whoa”…

What’s your take?

via Apple, CNN

Related posts:
— Apple Petition: Bring OpenGL 4.3, ZFS to OS X 10.9
— Just Brilliant: iPad mini + Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard
— Freeway Pro 6: Latest Mac App Store Victim
— Steve Jobs in Sweden: ‘Computers Will Radically Revolutionize Education’
— The ARM Mac Pro: Small, Light, Cheap, Plausible?