Here in the labs, we're not above passing along a bit of Corporate Advertising as if it were genuine tech news. So we'll tell you that Apple is running a Billion Songs Countdown promotion for its iTunes Music Store. Every 100,000th song downloaded gets a free iPod nano and a gift certificate, and the recipient of the billionth download gets an iMac, a $10,000 gift certificate to the iTMS, and ten (10) 60GB iPods. (If you don't feel like giving your money to The Man, there's a free entry form).

The reason why we're passing it along? For one thing, they're offering a full 4-year scholarship to a "world-renowned music school" (of Apple's choosing) in the grand prize-winner's name, which is a nice touch.

But really, we just think that ticker on the side of the website is kind of cool. We're seeing the exchange of virtual money for virtual music as it happens! While browsing the iTMS, we've often wondered, do people really actually buy The Anthology of Bread and I Am Me by Ashlee Simpson? And the answer is not only "yes," but "yes, and surprisingly frequently!"

We're reminded of the time a friend went to his orientation at The Search Engine Company We're Sick Of Writing About, and he described a ticker in the lobby that was updated with search terms as they were entered. ("Isn't that like reading subtitles on a documentary about people with Tourette's Syndrome?" we asked, but apparently they're run through a proprietary propriety filter first.)

And also, we've just got questions. A $10,000 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store? What kind of person really needs that many Beyonce duets and U2 videos? Is it the same kind of person who really needs ten iPods? Until we get answers, we'll be hunched over our computers, buying covers of "More Than a Feeling" (you'd be surprised how many there are) until we reach the billion mark.