Apple Computer says it has now sold over 200 million downloads since the launch of the iTunes Music Store in April 2003.
Eddy Cue, VP of applications at Apple, says track and album sales through the store have more than doubled in the past six months. Apple reported in July that it had crossed the 100 million download threshold.
To drive sales in the holiday season, Apple is also positioning music on iTunes as a gift item and trying to make iTunes more accessible to online consumers.
iTunes has prepaid cards available through Amazon.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Kroger, RadioShack, 7-Eleven, Target and Apple’s retail stores. The cards come in increments of $15 or $25.
Apple also has become the latest music service to accept the Paypal online payment system for customer transactions. Paypal, a credit-card alternative, is a favored payment solution for eBay users.
Apple is offering five free songs to the first 500,000 U.S. customers who open a new iTunes account using PayPal before March 31, 2005.
