How Apple revolutionized the world of music. iTunes Music Store Launched 20 Years Ago

In the early 2000s, shopping culture was in its infancy. Torrents and piracy sites prospered, and takeovers in many countries poorly regulated the spread of piracy.

Worst of all was used by the music industry, users downloaded tracks from the network without any payment or bought pirated copies of CDs and distributed compositions among friends and acquaintances.

Publishers opened secure links to audio file formats, but pirates took over and made all new music available to the public for free. Those who want to legally acquire user content do not require a simple and convenient implementation of this.

It is not surprising that he entered on April 28, 2003 iTunes Music Store (later the word “Music” was removed from the name) turned the entire music industry upside down. But first things first.

How Apple prepared the base for the music store

After returning to Apple Steve Jobs first put things in order in the line of produced computers, and then included more affordable and compact devices in the group. Cupertino was not yet ready to launch mobile phones on the market and a company to suppress the market among manufacturers of MP3 players.

Even then, at Apple, the authors were building a user ecosystem and, in conjunction with a Mac computer, began releasing iPod players.

To the point: The Complete History of the iPod from Classic to Touch

The devices were purchased moderately compact, with an interface and control density, and also in a stylish and recognizable design. The first generation was introduced in autumn 2001.

Rich first-generation iPod package

Sold within a few months 125 thousand playersnumber a two years later, the total number of iPods sold exceeded 1 million.

Device synced with computers Poppy And Window (support for the latter appeared only a year after the start of sales of the model), and to load songs into the player’s memory, you had to use the utility iTunes.

But in those days, you had to buy songs the old fashioned way – on CDs, and iTunes only a preliminary convenient interface for transferring tracks to an iPod drive.

How the iTunes Store Came to Be

Two years later, Cupertino presented the third-generation iPod player and a much more significant novelty – iTunes Music Store. The store has been built right into the app iTunesOwners of iPod players have already become accustomed to my family, who bought songs and entire albums of various genres and performers in a couple of clicks.

The price of one track includes $0.99 and in the USA, the cost of coffee in Starbucks. Songs could be listened to before buying, and no one had yet bought vegetable albums, as was common on CDs. The user received the purchased track forever and could listen to it on any of his apple devices.

In those days, there were already platforms for buying music in digital format, but they were all limited to one track owner. An exceptionally great achievement Steve Jobs became consolidation of popular industrial labels in one store music of numbers. The head of Apple personally held meetings and negotiated with star artists, producers and consumers to give their consent to distribute songs through iTunes.

How the Apple Music Store has evolved

The success has been stunning. Sales of iPods have skyrocketed, and the convenient way to buy tracks has become the next big thing in digital commerce. Apple managed to bypass such monsters as Sonywhich at the same time were an old-timer of the portable player market with a line player creation of music distribution associations Sony Musicbut at the same time it was not possible to come up with analogues of ligaments ipod + itunes.

Quarterly iPod sales figures from 2002 to 2013 (million units)

Apple has set the trend for a particular decade and is easily solved with individual financial problems.

The wave of popularity of the iPod began to subside only at the time of the release of the iPhone 5-6 generation. The smartphone has become a universal multifunctional gadget and a separate music player has lost its relevance. But that’s a completely different story.

Records iTunes Store and the emergence of Apple Music

Number of tracks purchased in the iTunes Store from 2002 to 2010 (billion units)

According to modest forecasts of Apple analysts, the store should reach the pace 1 million tracks sold in the first few months after launch. However, the millionth track was uploaded already in a week after launch iTunes Music Store.

Less than three years (1033 days to be exact) voted by users to buy 1 billion tracks V iTunes. In the middle of 2008 5 billionand at the beginning of 2010 exceeded the mark in 10 billion purchased compositions.

In early 2008, the iTunes Store became the most memorable music store in the United States, naming the supermarket chain wal mart (they still sold CDs). The number of active iTunes users by this time already applies 50 million people.

In December 2012, the iTunes Store officially launched in Russia

For over 10 years, the iTunes Store has been a simple and convenient platform for buying and listening to digital music. Progress did not take place on the spot, with popularization and the possibility of viewing on the Internet.

Streaming music services began to appear in the second half of the 2000s, and in the 2010s they began to massively lure the audience to iTunes and produced a functional library. For users, the previous subscription is at a cost and access to the entire music collection without restrictions.

For a long time, Internet battles between fans of two music distributions did not subside. They were ready to buy their favorite tracks forever, while others wanted for temporary access to the full media library.

Cupertino, though belatedly, but entered the market of streaming services. At the summer conference WWDC 2015 service was presented Apple Music.

How the iTunes Store Works Today

launch Apple Music did not make much use of the richest library of music riches, which for years of wealth in the iTunes Store are rich in Germans and rich even in dollars.

Apple did not turn off iTunes StoreThe service continues to operate to this day. Users discover access to the music presentation library, it is available for download at any time through the utility iTunes.

That’s just the application itself has long lost popularity. The utility for Mac eventually turned into a heavy, clumsy harvester with the release of macOS Catalina.

Some features are available to utilities Music, Podcasts And TVoption to work with connected iPhones in the file manager Seeker.

The service is still working today, you can buy songs, albums and ringtones

Find iTunes store far from always relevant iPhone or iPad. Many users already out of habit hide the icon in a distant folder or delete it from the device.

More and more users are using the streaming model, and the iTunes service is gaining popularity. He celebrated his 20th birthday quietly and modestly.

Happy Birthday iTunes Store!