Apple iTunes Hits 5 Billion Downloads, But Kid Rock Doesn’t Like That

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced today that they have sold over 5 billion songs on iTunes.  This even tops the amount of music that Wal-Mart has sold in all of their stores.  Currently iTunes has over 8 million songs in their library.  iTunes users are even renting/buying 50,000 movies per day. 

iTunes movies are provided by 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, MGM, Lionsgate, and New Line Cinema.  If you average $0.99 per song, that gives Apple close to $5 billion just on songs sold on iTunes.  Many people have iTunes installed solely because the software is needed to update iPods and iPhones.

This is great news for Apple, but is it great for the artists whose music is sold on iTunes?  Kid Rock doesn’t think so.  Kid Rock has decided to completely boycott iTunes.  iTunes is an ‘old system’  “where iTunes takes the money, the record company takes the money, and they don’t give it to the artists,” according to the Detroit native rock and roll singer.

When asking whether it is okay to steal music, Rock disagreed in a witty form.  “I think we should level the playing field. I don’t mind people stealing my music, that’s fine. But I think they should steal everything. You know how much money the oil companies have? If you need some gas, just go fill your tank off and drive off, they’re not going to miss it.”

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