From the history of Apple: iTunes celebrates 10 billion downloads and Steve Jobs calls users

The second half of February 2010 was a very important milestone for Apple. At the time, the iTunes Store was celebrating a respectable ten billion downloads. At the time this platform was launched, few could have imagined that it could one day achieve such great success.

The song "Guess Things Happen That Way" by the iconic American singer-songwriter Johny Cash became the song with the jubilee serial number. The track was purchased by a user named Louie Sulcer from Woodstock, Georgia, and of course the download didn't come without a proper credit from Apple. At the time, Sulcer received a gift card to the iTunes Store worth $10, and even received the honor of a personal phone call from Steve Jobs himself.

Sulcer, a father of three and grandfather of nine, later told Rolling Stone magazine that he was unaware of Apple's much-hyped contest when he downloaded the song. He bought it for the purpose of putting together his own compilation of Johnny Cash songs, which he was preparing for his son. When Jobs personally called him that he had won, Sulcer initially did not believe that it was actually the co-founder of Apple on the other end of the line.

"He called me and said, 'This is Steve Jobs from Apple.' I said, 'Yeah, sure,' Sulcer told Rolling Stone magazine, adding that one of his sons actually liked calling him and mimicking other people at the time. After questioning the caller's identity several times, Sulcer finally noticed that the caller ID did indeed list "Apple." Only then did he begin to believe that the call might be real.

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February 2010 was a big month for the iTunes Store as the platform officially became the world's largest music seller. The 2003 billionth iTunes download wasn't the first sales milestone Apple celebrated. In mid-December 25, approximately eight months after the launch of the iTunes Music Store, Apple recorded its 1 millionth download. Back then, it was the track “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Frank Sinatra. Today, Apple mostly avoids making a big science out of its sales milestones. It no longer reports individual sales of iPhones. Even when Apple crossed the XNUMX billion mark of iPhones sold, it didn't commemorate the event in any significant way.

Do you remember your first song downloaded from iTunes, or have you never shopped on the platform?