I-yi-yi, iTunes tops 3 billion downloads

CUPERTINO, Calif., July 31 (UPI) -- More than 3 billion songs have been bought and downloaded from the iTunes Stores, now the third largest U.S. music retailer, Apple announced Tuesday.

"We'd like to thank all of our customers who have contributed to this incredible milestone," Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes, said in a news release.

Apple, headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., said iTunes recently surpassed Amazon.com and Target to become the third largest music retailer in the United States, based on data from market researcher NPD Group's MusicWatch survey. The survey considers past-week, consumer-reported unit purchases in which one CD is equivalent to 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions.

iTunes features a catalog of more than 5 million songs, 550 television shows and 500 movies.