Apple's music store: Over 1 billion served

Apple Computer has sold 1 billion songs via its online music store.

At about 9:40 p.m. PST Wednesday, the company's online counter reached the 1 billion mark. For several minutes before the online counter crossed the threshhold, about five songs per second were being tallied, but with about 50,000 to go, the counter suddenly jumped to 1 billion and stopped.

To the purchaser of the billionth song, the company promised a 20-inch iMac (whether it's the model with the Intel chip was not specified), 10 60GB iPods, a $10,000 iTunes Music Card and "a full-ride scholarship in your name to a world-renowned music school."

Stay tuned for the identity of the winner.