Apple Mac's new music download service has sold a million tracks in just over a week - a milestone record label execs predicted would take a month to pass - and putting the service way ahead of the other legit download services.
Apple boss Steve Jobs was jubilant at the news: "In less than one week we've broken every record and become the largest online music company in the world. Apple has created the first complete solution for the digital music age."
Josh Berrioff of research firm Forrester Research told reporters that Apple's service marked "the beginning of a torrent of innovation" predicting other download services would follow Apple's pay-per-track system rather than charging a monthly subscription fee. He reckons Apple's success is down to the fact they have managed to attract music fans who use illegal download services who are looking for a more technically reliable way of downloading their favourite tracks.
Doug Morris of Universal Music was also complimentary of Apple's achievement: "Our internal measure of success was having the iTunes Music Store sell one million songs in the first month. To do this in one week is an over-the-top success."
The success of iTunes is a particular achievement given the service is only available in the US for Mac users. A Windows version should be launched later this year.
Perhaps more important for Apple shareholders is the news that in the same week the company received 110,000 orders for the new iPod. In many ways the iTunes service has been set up to drive sales of Apple's music technology rather than make huges sums of money in itself.