iTunes Chugs Along, Adds Ringtone Capabilities

iTunes continues to chug along at full speed, with the service now number one in all 22 countries that it operates in, CEO Steve Jobs said at a press event on Wednesday. All of the stores include six million tracks in their libraries, and customers have bought more than 3 billion songs. With over 600 million downloads sold via iTunes, the volume of songs downloaded has been enough to propel it to the third largest music store in the US.

Wednesday brings a new version of the popular software, and Apple's first entry into the lucrative ringtone business. 500,000 songs will be available as ringtowns initially and Apple would charge 99 cents to create one from a song. The user would have control of what 30-second segment of the song would be used. At this time, it only appears that the ringtones would be compatible with Apple's iPhone.