Apple announce today that the company has sold more than 3 billion songs through the iTunes Store over the last 4 years.

Let's put that in perspective. Assuming the average CD has 12 tracks, that's 250 million albums worth of music. Assuming the average song is 4 minutes long, if you played each track one after the other, it would take you 22,831 years to finish. Of course, if you take out Elton John tracks, you'd be done in a few hours.

According to the NPD group, the latest figures make Apple the third largest music retailer in the US, behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy, but ahead of Amazon and Target.

The fun part of the press release where Apple points out that they've got 5 million songs available for sale, 550 TV shows, and 500 movies. How many Disney movies do you have to sell to reach 3 billion?