Apple made it official today that its music business has again hit a landmark, this time having sold over five billion songs through the iTunes Store. iTunes is currently the number one music retailer in the US, having surpassed Wal-Mart in popularity just a few months ago.

iTunes features the largest music catalog having more than eight million songs, with over 50,000 movies being rented and purchased every single day, making iTunes the most popular online movie store currently on the market. Users can rent movies and watch them on most Apple devices but also on PCs. All current generation iPods (movie rentals work on iPod classic, iPod nano with video and iPod touch), as well as the iPhone are supported, while owners of an Apple TV can sit back and enjoy podcasts, TV shows and movies from the comfort of their couch (given they own a widescreen TV).

Best of all, movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios are available for grabs on iTunes the very day they are released on DVD.

On April 4th, 2008, ars technica was reporting that iTunes' sudden jump to pole position was caused by post Christmas gift-card redemption. Apple had since dropped to second place, chasing only Wal-Mart. Soon after, iTunes was back in pole position.

"Apple today announced that the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group", an official Apple report read at the time. "With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold over four billion songs and features the world's largest music catalog of over six million songs", the report went on.

Apple's report of 5 billion songs sold through iTunes is "based on data from market research firm the NPD Group's MusicWatch survey that captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions".