Apple’s record song downloads from the iTunes Store are moving to the next level yet another time – with the company beginning its ‘Countdown to 10 Billion Songs’ on Thursday!

Going by the statistics, iTunes Store’s leap from 5 billion downloads to the imminent 10 billion figure has come in just over one-and-a-half years – the five-billionth track was downloaded in June 2008. A pragmatic sampling of Apple’s published numbers clearly hints that the ten-billionth song download would likely come by February-end.

To celebrate the soon-to-be-achieved iTunes downloads landmark, Apple has, in what has become almost customary, launched a contest in which the person who downloads the ten billionth song will be awarded a $10,000 gift card, which will be redeemable at the company’s popular online music and app store.

The company further elaborated that, to be eligible for the award, a person has to be at least 13 years old and should be a resident of any of the participating countries that have an iTunes Store. However, each person will be allowed only 25 entries in one day.

The announced award can also be won without downloading any songs, but by submitting a form on the Apple Website – however, the submission of the form has to be timed in such a way that it comes right after the
9,999,999,999th download!