iTunes: Spend 99 cents, win $10,000 – with a big catch

Apple says the lucky customer who downloads the 10 billionth app from the Apple App Store will win $10K. The catch: the money comes in the form of an iTunes gift card.

At some point in the next couple of days, someone will log onto the Apple App Store, and download an application. And that application will be the 10 billionth app downloaded from the App Store. And money will rain from the sky. According to Apple, the lucky customer to log that 10 billionth download will receive a hefty $10K. But here's the rub: That $10K won't come in the form of a suitcase filled with cash.

Instead, the $10K prize from Apple will come in the form of a $10K gift card to the iTunes store. This is akin to Kellogg's offering $10K for the consumer who buys the 10 billionth box of Frosted Flakes – and then specifying that the winner will really be receiving 1,400 trucks full of.... boxes of Frosted Flakes. Moreover, the Apple App store prize begs a question: How would you even go about spending $10,000 on iTunes?

Let us count the ways: You could buy 10,000 songs. You could buy every season of "Lost," 50 times over. You could buy ten copies of the "I Am Rich" – the preposterously expensive application that flashes a red jewel, reminding "you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this." But then again, "I Am Rich" was pulled from the Apple store, so you can't really buy that, either.

(We're open to suggestions.)

Back in February, of course, iTunes – just about a decade ago – logged its 10 billionth song download. As the Monitor noted at the time, the most-download song list from iTunes makes for interesting reading: The top spot went to “I Gotta Feeling," by the Black Eyed Peas. Meanwhile, Lady Gaga had three songs in the top 25: “Poker Face,” “Just Dance,” and “Bad Romance.”

Click here for all of the best-selling songs on iTunes.