Within three years of getting into the digital music business, Apple has sold more than 1 billion songs on its iTunes Music Store and has become the dominant online venue for music, writes the San Francisco Chronicle. Last month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Apple was selling 3 million songs a day - a rate of more than 1 billion songs a year - and said iTunes accounts for 83 percent of onlione downloadable music sold.

"Over 1 billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet," Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said in a written statement.

Apple may have a huge lead, but competitors such as Microsoft, Sony, Amazon and Google have already jumped into the fray or are preparing to.

The 1 billionth song was downloaded by Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Mich., Apple said. He will receive a 20-inch-screen iMac, 10 iPods and a $10,000 gift card for the iTunes Music Store. Apple will also establish a scholarship in his name at the Juilliard School of Music.