The 50 million tracks does not include songs given away free through its ongoing promotion with Pepsi. iTunes offers more than 500,000 songs from 300 indies labels in addition to the Big Five. It currently offers exclusive tracks from 150 artists.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: “Crossing 50 million songs is a major milestone for iTunes and the emerging digital music era. With over 50 million songs already downloaded and an additional 2.5 million songs being downloaded every week, it's increasingly difficult to imagine others ever catching up with iTunes. Just like nobody ever caught up to us in the PC market after we launched the Mac.”
That doesn’t mean it’s all good news for iTunes. A French group that represents rights holders has threatened the company over what it claims are lost royalties on sales of iPods.
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The charge on the largest iPod would come to 20 euros ($24.63) each. Sacem estimates that Apple sold 20,000 iPods in
Sacem has said that unless Apple settles its growing account, the agency that collects the payments “will have no other option than to go immediately to court to make sure that the rights of artists, composers and producers are respected.” Apple has declined to comment on the issue.
Apple is in talks with record labels over the European launch of iTunes.
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