Apple Notches 10 Billionth iTunes Download: Johnny Cash

Apple's iTunes store had its 10 billionth song download Wednesday and, fittingly enough, the song was Johnny Cash's "Guess Things Happen That Way." Apple confirmed as much Thursday morning, as well as the lucky winner -- Louie Sulcer, of Woodstock, Ga. -- of a $10,000 iTunes gift card for being the downloader to hit Apple's 10 billion milestone.

Apple hit the 5 billionth iTunes download about a year and a half ago. Last month, as the company realized it was closing in on the 10 billion download mark, it launched the iTunes Countdown to 10 Billion Songs and promised the gift certificate to whoever hit the mark.

"We're grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services, in a statement. "We're proud that iTunes has become the No. 1 music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering."

Apple's iTunes store was a gold standard in paid music downloading services even before another mighty Apple outlet, the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch, became a force to be reckoned with.

A number of potential iTunes rivals, including Mozilla's Songbird and a rumored Google music service called Google Audio, have thus far failed to eat into Apple's substantial market share. Other rivals have attempted to challenge iTunes through music streaming services such as iLike (now owned by MySpace) and Lala.com.

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