The releases typically contain more than twenty tracks (some more than thirty), which include music from the artist's body of releases, new recordings (of both previously released and sometimes unreleased songs) specifically for the iTunes Originals, and spoken word tracks that explore the artist's history and work, and/or discuss the next song.
Most iTunes Originals albums are available in the United States iTunes Store, with availability in other countries' music stores varying with each release.
Occasionally there are Originals available only in other countries; one notable example is Ulfuls' Japanese release, which was the top downloaded album in Japan for the first four days after iTunes first launched in that country in August 2005.
By 2006, fifteen iTunes Originals albums had charted on the Billboard Top Digital Albums chart, including those by The Fray, Ben Harper, Rob Thomas and Fiona Apple.
[5] The best-selling digital-only album of 2005 was iTunes Originals – Sarah McLachlan.