Apple announced today that the iTunes store has sold more than 3 billion songs to customers since its launch. Last January, Steve Jobs announced that the store had crossed the 2 billion mark. This means that in a little over six months, the iTunes store has grown by 150 per cent, putting the service on pace to double its number of total downloads in just one year.

31 Jul 2007

By comparison, the total human population currently stands at roughly 6.6 billion, and is growing at a rate of 1.167 per cent. Using our VERY rough estimate, if the iTunes store keeps its current growth rate, by the end of next year there will be more iTunes downloads in the world than people. Even if downloads remain steady, and Apple simply continues to serve up 2 billion downloads each year, iTunes songs will overtake people by mid 2011.

I think we all know where this will ultimately lead....