Though I must say figures look very optimistic, Billboard.com reports that Apple's iTunes sold an estimated 275,000 tracks at 99 cents apiece in its first 18 hours, according to major-label sources... an even more impressive record when you consider this is currently limited to Macintosh users only.

The Reg has its take on the story, too, do the math and that's about four songs sold every second. Though it's not been publicly said how much Apple is making off each song it sells, rough estimates would indicate it's about 35 cents (from the full 99 cents), not a bad way to add to your quarterly revenues in just a few hours.

Last but not least, in a somewhat related note, four university students that illegally shared music over the campus network agreed to pay thousands of dollars each to settle online music piracy charges, ending the record industry's most aggressive thrust yet against individual file swappers.