Apple reported Thursday that more than five billion songs have been downloaded from its online iTunes Store.

That milestone confirms a MusicWatch survey from NPD Group that found the iTunes online store is the top music retailer in the U.S., selling more music than retailing giant Wal-Mart. As recently as the third quarter of 2005, the iTunes Store was ranked seventh among major music retailers.

The iTunes Store offers more than eight million songs and more than 2,000 movies, plus 20,000 episodes of TV shows. More than 50,000 movies are rented or purchased every day, Apple said, making it the most popular online movie store as well.

Sales of Apple’s iPods and iPhones continue to grow and may be a factor in its online dominance of both music and movies.

that is particularly true as consumers have shown a growing preference for buying just the songs they want instead of an entire CD like those available at Wal-Mart.

As an added feature, the iTunes Store gives customers the ability to turn previously purchased music into albums at a reduced price.

Apple’s store offers movies from all the major movie studios, including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate and New Line Cinema. Rented movies can be viewed on Macs and PCs, iPods, iPhones and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV.

In addition, iTunes Store customers can buy new movie releases on the same day they are released on DVD.

Orginal post by Top Tech News