AceShowbiz -

On Wednesday, February 6, Apple's iTunes online music store sold its 25 billionth song download, marking a great milestone in its decade-long existence since it was first launched by the visionary Steve Jobs. To celebrate the achievement, Apple Inc. has rewarded a EUR 10,000 iTunes gift card to its quarter billionth customer.

The lucky downloader was German student Philip Luepke, who bought the track "Monkey Drums" (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch. Luepke got the special prize as a commemorative gift to celebrate the remarkable achievement of iTunes, which has revolutionized the way people buy and listen to music nowadays.

"I was very surprised to hear the news," Luepke told Reuters in a phone interview from his home. "In fact, I didn't quite believe it at first," the stunned winner added. Luepke said he first heard the song at a disco he went to last Saturday night and used the song-identification smartphone application Shazam to look it up, downloading it the following evening.

This latest, massive iTunes feat, when broken down into simpler terms, is equivalent to 3 songs for every person on earth, not surprising considering that an average of about 15,000 songs gets downloaded each minute for a whopping 21 million songs a day. The online store has a catalog of more than 26 million songs in 119 countries and has since expanded to digital books, games, applications, magazines, movies and TV shows.