Ten-Billionth iTunes Download a Bundle of Surprises for Winner

Woodstock, Georgia native Louis Sulcer, father of three, grandfather of nine, was simply downloading some Johnny Cash songs for a mix he had planned to make for his son, completely unaware of what was going on at the other end of the digital transaction in California.

As Rolling Stone reports, when Sulcer received a phone call from someone saying congratulations and introducing himself as Steve Jobs, he thought he was being pranked by the same son known to play practical jokes. Only upon taking note of the name Apple appearing on the caller ID did he realize that it wasn't a joke at all.

Introduced to digital music downloads just three years ago, Sulcer had no idea that Apple and its iTunes platform were expecting to cross a huge threshold this past week, but as it turned out, Sulcer's purchase of a Johnny Cash song (amusingly, Cash's "Guess Things Happen That Way") was the 10 billionth download purchased through iTunes. Having been previously unaware of the company's announcement of plans for the occasion, Sulcer soon enough learned from Jobs that he had won a $10,000 gift card and a brand new iPod Nano for being the lucky winner of the prize that countless thousands were deliberately aiming for.

Not only had he been completely in the dark about the contest until getting Mr. Jobs on the phone, the Cash song that earned him the prize was also new to him. Assigned with making a Cash mix for his son, he stumbled across the iTunes Store 30 second preview of the song and liked what he heard. As quoted by Rolling Stone, Sulcer says of the milestone download: "I really liked it. It had some really good pickin’ in it. So that’s how I got to that song."

Photo by wmbreedveld via flickr