The iTunes music site has had more than 250 million songs purchased and downloaded, Apple has confirmed.

The astounding figure easily surpasses expectations outlined by Apple bosses with all the signs pointing towards its growth rate continuing to escalate during the next 12 months.

An estimated one and a quarter million songs are downloaded from the iTunes site per day, equating to a potential output of almost half a billion songs overall for the year.

“When we launched the iTunes Music Store we were hoping to sell a million songs in the first six months,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

“Now we are selling over a million songs every day, and we have sold over a quarter billion songs in total.

“iTunes is leading the way into the digital music era and together with iPod is changing the way millions of music lovers find and enjoy their music.”

The latest figures from research group NPD also reveal that iTunes now has a 70 per cent share of the music download market, helped considerably by its successful initiation into fifteen countries around the globe.