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

[MacRumors]

On April 28, 2003, Apple introduced the iTunes Store, its iconic digital marketplace for downloading music. 22 years later, most of us don't purchase songs and albums individually anymore, and the iTunes Store doesn't exist as it once did, but played a major role in Apple history.

Early Years

When it launched, the iTunes Store was only for the Mac, but it expanded to Windows PCs before the end of 2003. It was a one-stop shop for music that could be loaded onto an iPod, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs inked deals with a number of different record labels to get it up and running.

In the first 18 hours following the launch of the iTunes Store, Apple sold ~275,000 tracks, with songs priced at $0.99 at the time. Less than a week after launch, Apple sold 1 million songs, and at the two week mark, Apple was at 2 million songs sold.

By 2008, five years after the iTunes Store launched, Apple's iTunes Store was the biggest music vendor in the United States. In 2010, it was the largest music seller in the world, bringing in over a billion dollars.

Pricing

The iTunes Store sold songs for $0.99 in the United States, though some were more expensive at $1.29. Albums were priced at $9.99 by default, but distributors were able to set higher prices. Apple regularly offered iTunes promotions, including weekly free songs.

Beyond Music

Before the App Store launched in 2008, the iTunes Store also housed apps, plus it was home to digital books before the launch of the iBooks Store. Apple also used the iTunes Store for distributing podcasts, TV shows, and movies.

The Rise of Streaming Music

In the 2010s, interest in streaming music started to pick up, cutting into music purchases. Streaming services like Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, and Pandora launched earlier in the decade, but more people became interested in streaming music when Spotify launched in the United States in 2011.

Beats Music launched in 2014, and was quickly purchased by Apple when Apple acquired the Beats brand. Apple ended up turning Beats Music into Apple Music, a Spotify competitor that launched on June 30, 2015. By 2016, just 24 percent of the music industry's revenue came from digital music sales, with streaming services bringing in over 50 percent of total revenue.

The iTunes Store Today

You'll still find the iTunes Store app on your iPhone, but it's a little harder to find on the Mac. It's available as a dedicated section in the Apple Music app for those who still purchase music.

TV shows and movies were split out into the TV app, while podcasts were split into the Podcasts app as part of changes made in macOS Catalina back in 2019. The Windows version of the iTunes Store stuck around longer, but in 2024, Apple launched dedicated Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices apps for Windows users to replace iTunes.

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

 

[sjsharksfan12]

I miss the original Itunes store. You had the free single of the week (A lot of it was no name artists, but there were some good ones, like Sarah Bareilles "Love Song" which became a hit) and trying to find the old .69 songs. A lot has changed, yes, but there was something Iconic about that era.

 

[211]

I still buy music, movies and TV shows from the Store. And I have  Music. I think more people would still buy from the store if it wasn’t buried and Apple still promoted it

 

[DrJR]

I remember, and had one of the first iPods, second version IIRC, still have it. tremendous times…. until they started shoving U2 down our throats…. then they crossed a line!

And now i will give Apple advice, and if they make a killing just send me a few million: AI “remastered” high res audio for audiophiles. we can do better balancing and fill out thin tones, or things not quite done right the first time. Based on the amount of Beatles re-releases remasters they really sucked.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Such a great history with digital music. Shame they squandered this market with Apple Music.

 

[mannyvel]

It's funny that the MacOS market share worked for Apple in this case. None of the labels cared about 1% of the market. And of course, Jobs had a lot of leverage as Disney's major shareholder. That gave him a surprising amount of cred.

So the labels licensed music to Apple and it was all over.

 

[ehrens]

My first iPod was a 40GB 3rd gen I bought just after the Windows iTMS launched. (My driver disc still had Musicmatch on it…) The following spring, the PepsiTunes promotion dropped and I had SO MANY codes from Mtn Dew and that began my affinity for the iTMS in full, and I re-assimilated into the Mac world later that year. Fond memories.

 

[GermanSuplex]

I only use streaming as a “radio” service for discovery. I own my music and rely heavily on playcounts and playlists, and have too much live music and unreleased material not available online to make the leap to streaming only services.

I love the convenience of having your library on your phone, but I do miss the days when iTunes was a simple (and the best) way to organize your music. Once iTunes Match and cloud services entered the picture, the app became far too buggy and slow, although I still find it better than the alternatives.

 

[attohs]

I remember tipping Pepsi bottles. You could tell which ones were winners before you bought them.

 

[ZipZilla]

The labels insistence on milking every last cent out of the CD and individual downloads meant they missed the ability to innovate an unlimited plan that would get them a lot more money. The result? $10 a month unlimited and no functioning music business anymore.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

The labels insistence on milking every last cent out of the CD and individual downloads meant they missed the ability to innovate an unlimited plan that would get them a lot more money. The result? $10 a month unlimited and no functioning music business anymore.

Functioning for who?

Revenue generated by the music industry is much higher now than it was ten years ago.

 

[Unity451]

This is the era that everyone learned to despise Lars Ulrich.

 

[Marbles1]

Apple cheapened it by turning the iTunes experience for music into a generic streaming service, where Apple Music itself is a bit of an annoyance.

They took away the sense of 'having' an album. Of having your own collection, curated neatly. Coverflow showing album covers.

They should've kept the best bits of iTunes - they could have made it feel as if we actually owned or were at least _collecting_ music even if it was all provided through a subscription service. It'd make it more sticky.

 

[awshucks]

I still buy songs sometimes for my flash modded iPod 4th gen. Props to Apple for continuing the service.

 

[goobot]

Apple should’ve leveraged the iTunes Store as they transitioned to streaming. Just make a good music app and let users decide if they want to purchase the song or stream it.

 

[ambientdaw]

and then CRUSHED it with greed (angry much?). They do not want anyone to own their own music collections they want to rent it to you for the rest of your life and your children's lives. And not offering me CD-quality wav files for the music I just bought and own? Bad form.

 

[holmesf]

What in the AI generated iMac is going on with the thumbnail image for this article. Am I the only one who actually lived through 2003?

 

[holmesf]

and then MURDERED it like greedy scumbags (angry much?). They do not want anyone to own their own music collections they want to rent it to you for the rest of your life and your children's lives. And not selling CD-quality wav files for music that I bought and own? Bad form. Very bad form and ugly on the inside.

Huh? You can still buy music on the iTunes Store today. Although I bet very few people do.

 

[syklee26]

This literally saved music industry. Without iTunes, Napster would’ve devoured the industry.

 

[macizcool]

I still have and maintain my original iTunes library from 2003. I have so much music, and don’t listen to much new music, so I continue to use my iTunes library. If I need a new song, I try to rip it from a CD, or I’ll buy an Apple Digital Master version on iTunes.

I didn’t purchase music from Apple until they increased the bitrate in the later years. I didn’t want to pay for music that was only 128kbps.

Hopefully I have all the music I need, because I feel like the iTunes Store will go away soon.

 

[mondaiguy]

You should be able to buy songs from Apple Music. Simple as that.

 

[DocMultimedia]

I still miss SoundJam. The skins people created were amazing. And then Apple butchered the creative side when they bought it.

 

[Spock]

I remember giving up Limewire to legally purchase music. And I still have a lot of music when they did the deal with Pepsi for free music.

 

[Digital Dude]

Never thought much of iTunes, but then again I’m not a big music buff. 🤷‍♂️

 

[terrapinjess]

I still buy music but I do it all through Bandcamp now. I got tired of the weird genre assignments, auto-categorization of artist and album artist, music I downloaded suddenly not downloaded anymore…
I find it much better for a music collector to download in Bandcamp, import into Music, assign all the tags and titles myself and make any adjustments, then sync it over to my phone lossless. I get a huge hi-res album art with Bandcamp but I do miss the animated album covers in iTunes…
It gives me more control and I like knowing exactly where things are and not assigned “indie rock” or whatever else.
iTunes is heaps more convenient, yes, but it wants to keep re/auto-assigning genres and undownloading things and… Bandcamp gives me back control.