German buys one song, wins $13,525 iTunes gift card

Phillip Lüpke likes to jam to and buy electronic music. Now he won’t have to pay for it -- at least for a few years.

Lüpke won an iTunes gift card worth $13,525 for downloading the 25 billionth song from Apple Inc.’s digital store Wednesday.

The 22-year-old from Hover, Germany, said he got a call from Apple but at first didn’t believe that he had won a gift card with 10,000 euros on it. That’s roughly $13,525 based on today’s exchange rate.

“I was very surprised. First, I didn’t believe that it’s the truth, but Apple called me and yeah it’s true,” Lüpke told the Times in an online conversation, adding a smiley emoticon.

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Lüpke’s winning purchase was of “Monkey Drums,” the Goksel Vancin Remix, by Chase Buch, which he downloaded Monday evening. Lüpke said he found the song using Shazam while at his favorite club.

“I like electronic music, and this song was very great,” he said.

Nowadays, most iTunes songs cost $1.29 before tax, which means Lüpke could buy more than 10,400 songs before running his card out. He could also spend the money on movies, TV shows and apps.

When asked what his next song purchase will be, Lüpke said he isn’t sure, but he knows it’ll be much more than one.

“Normally I just download a few songs per month, but now I think it will be more,” he said. “It’s so much money, and it’s enough to download my favorite music for the next years.”

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German gets $13,525 gift card for buying 25 billionth iTunes song