One followed by ten zeroes

Somewhere tomorrow, someone will download the ten billionth song from Apple's iTunes store. How big is ten billion? Well, it's one followed by TEN zeroes. The number also means that Apple will have sold a song for every person on the planet, with 3,300,000,000 left over. To mark the occasion, iTunes is giving a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the lucky downloader of the ten billionth song. It could be you or it might be me.

Do you remember when buying music meant going to a shop? Do you remember having to pay for an entire album just to get that one great song you heard on the radio? If you do, you'll know why tomorrow's milestone is so momentous. iTunes hasn't only changed the way music is sold... it has changed lifestyle, fashion and business. And it's part of a bigger trend — the dramatic acceleration of change that's shaping the cultural, economic and political currents of our young century. Two years ago, the Shift Happens team summed it all up in this brilliant video clip.