It's Been 22 Years Since Apple Launched the iTunes Store

On April 28, 2003, Apple introduced the iTunes Store, its iconic integer marketplace for downloading music. 22 years later, astir of america don't acquisition songs and albums individually anymore, and the iTunes Store doesn't beryllium arsenic it erstwhile did, but played a large relation successful Apple history.

Early Years

When it launched, the iTunes Store was lone for the Mac, but it expanded to Windows PCs before the extremity of 2003. It was a one-stop store for euphony that could beryllium loaded onto an iPod, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs inked deals with a fig of antithetic grounds labels to get it up and running.

In the archetypal 18 hours pursuing the motorboat of the iTunes Store, Apple sold ~275,000 tracks, with songs priced astatine $0.99 astatine the time. Less than a week aft launch, Apple sold 1 cardinal songs, and astatine the 2 week mark, Apple was astatine 2 cardinal songs sold.

By 2008, 5 years aft the iTunes Store launched, Apple's iTunes Store was the biggest euphony vendor successful the United States. In 2010, it was the largest euphony seller successful the world, bringing successful implicit a cardinal dollars.

Pricing

The iTunes Store sold songs for $0.99 successful the United States, though immoderate were much costly astatine $1.29. Albums were priced astatine $9.99 by default, but distributors were capable to acceptable higher prices. Apple regularly offered iTunes promotions, including play escaped songs.

Beyond Music

Before the App Store launched successful 2008, the iTunes Store besides housed apps, positive it was location to integer books earlier the motorboat of the iBooks Store. Apple besides utilized the iTunes Store for distributing podcasts, TV shows, and movies.

The Rise of Streaming Music

In the 2010s, involvement successful streaming euphony started to prime up, cutting into euphony purchases. Streaming services similar Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, and Pandora launched earlier successful the decade, but much radical became funny successful streaming euphony erstwhile Spotify launched successful the United States successful 2011.

Beats Music launched successful 2014, and was quickly purchased by Apple erstwhile Apple acquired the Beats brand. Apple ended up turning Beats Music into Apple Music, a Spotify rival that launched connected June 30, 2015. By 2016, conscionable 24 percent of the euphony industry's gross came from integer euphony sales, with streaming services bringing successful over 50 percent of full revenue.

The iTunes Store Today

You'll inactive find the iTunes Store app connected your iPhone, but it's a small harder to find connected the Mac. It's disposable arsenic a dedicated conception successful the Apple Music app for those who inactive acquisition music.

TV shows and movies were divided retired into the TV app, portion podcasts were divided into the Podcasts app arsenic portion of changes made successful macOS Catalina backmost successful 2019. The Windows mentation of the iTunes Store stuck astir longer, but successful 2024, Apple launched dedicated ‌Apple Music‌, Apple TV, and Apple Devices apps for Windows users to regenerate iTunes.
This article, "It's Been 22 Years Since Apple Launched the iTunes Store" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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