If you are reading this blog, chances are you are a fan of Clay Aiken. So…it follows that you are probably a fan of good music.  Most fans of good music are interested in finding the best place to hear and purchase their musical choices.  Apple and iTunes is hoping that they will be your choice of new music purchases.

On September 1, 2010, Steve Jobs presented some facts about Apple and iTunes that are very interesting.  He started his presentation with some very impressive statistics.

• There are currently 300 Apple stores, in 10 countries.
• There are in excess of 1 million visitors to those stores on most days.
• iTunes has 160 million active accounts
• 12 million songs in the iTunes store

• • 450 million TV episodes downloaded via iTunes
  • 11.7 billion songs downloaded from iTunes
  • 100 million movies downloaded via iTunes
  • 35 million books downloaded via iTunes

These numbers seem pretty impressive.

After presenting the statistics, Mr. Jobs announced the unveiling of iTunes 10.  An unexpected announcement was the introduction of Ping on iTunes. With it, users will be able to follow friends and see what music they have bought or enjoyed, what concerts they plan to attend and what music they have reviewed. They will also be able to follow bands and get updates on their new releases, concert tours and other events.

The service will be instantly available to 160 million iTunes users once they download the latest version of the software, the NY Times reports.

Mr. Jobs also announced a new iTune logo. He said:

“Since iTunes is about to bypass CDs in sales, we thought it was appropriate to ditch the CD.”

OLD LOGO

NEW LOGO

Do you like the new logo better than the old one?  Do you use iTunes?