Apple announced this week that it has sold 3 billion songs from the iTunes Store, another impressive milestone for an arm of the company the primary purpose of which is to encourage sales of the far more profitable iPod.

I could have purchased the 3 billionth song myself; I discovered to my absolute delight the other day that the iTunes Store carries a significant chunk of the material by a band legendary in the Baltimore area - Crack the Sky.

The band never caught on nationally (a great injustice) but WIYY 98 Rock played enough Crack to make the group very popular in the Land of Pleasant Living.

Albums available on iTunes include all the great early stuff, including the self-titled debut album (which Rolling Stone declared Album of the Year in 1975), Animal Notes and White Music.

You can get the debut album and White Music as a combo download for a mere $9.99, a terrific deal.

Dave Zeiler blogs about Macs and other Apple products at baltimoresun.com/apple.