The iTunes Store home page in 2013.
On this day (April
28), 10 years ago in 2003, the iTunes Music Store was opened for the first
time. The idea was a huge innovation in the record industry. At the time, the
biggest online music provider was Napster – which was facing tough legal action
– and there was a significant amount of confusion about regulating music. No
one was sure on what road to take with the legality of free music. Then Apple
CEO Steve Jobs came along with an idea that would change everything. His idea
was iTunes, and online catalog of thousands of songs from around the world
priced at a simple 99 cents. Jobs did some convincing of major record labels,
and then the idea took off.
Left: original version of iTunes in 2003
Right: current version of iTunes
Not only was iTunes
a relatively innovative technology, but it also priced music for significantly
cheaper than it was selling for. At the time, a typical physical album would
have been priced around $15 to $18, yet Apple managed to reduce that price to
$10. This was also the first time anyone could own individual songs legally.
The easiness and cheapness of the service allowed music fans to customize their
libraries more than ever before. Within the first week of release, iTunes had
already received one million downloads from its store. As of 2013, that number
has reached 25 billion.
iTunes is
significant in the media as it has changed the music industry almost completely
the past decade. iTunes turned the music industry into an almost completely
technology-focused area. Now that digital music was becoming available, people
wanted to make it more portable. This brought on the rise of the MP3 player –
an industry which Apple also dominates still today. In turn, the MP3 player
combined its capabilities with mobile phones, making mobile devices the next
big thing since the personal computer. iTunes made it possible to have music
libraries with thousands of songs and albums. And all of this the music
industry had never seen before. iTunes made it possible for the music industry
to transition into the digital age before it had even considered making such a
move.
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