Millions of iPods + iTunes Gift Cards = Slow iTunes Store

The iTunes Store was very slow yesterday, and is creeping along today. This is because millions of people received iPods yesterday, and apparently went right to the iTunes Store to load up their new device. The iTunes Store should speed up by the end of the day today, but expect slower-than-usual download and purchase times until traffic lightens up a bit.

Part of the intense traffic probably comes from recipients of iTunes Gift cards. We sold way more of these than we expected, and this is probably true elsewhere. These can be used to purchase TV shows and movies, along with music albums and song tracks. Of course, video files are much larger than songs, and consume much more download bandwidth.

It will be very interesting to see what Apple’s final numbers are in January!