Apple hits a three-billion-milestone. Or rather, it has announced that more than 3 billion songs have been downloaded and purchased through the iTunes store.

Also recently, the NPD Group's MusicWatch survey names iTunes as the third largest music retailer in the US, topping Amazon and Target.

Those are pretty amazing feats considering the rate of piracy these days and that they only offer content that's download only. The sales have no doubt been helped along with Apple's revolutionary iPhone which continues to be what is probably the most popular phone ever to be sold.