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

[Ctrlos]

The great thing about iTunes is iTunes Match updated all my weird mp3s to relatively better quality and legal mp3s. I still subscribe to match for reasons unknown to me.

It uploads all your personal MP3s to the cloud allowing you to stream them in the music app. Apple Music includes this but you can still pay the $30 a year for Match instead to include your ripped CDs with your store-bought music.

 

[urtules]

Still buying songs from iTunes and using iTunes Match. I am trying Apple Music as a part of free trial again and I am happy with selection of songs but not happy when some songs would skip randomly. I also like idea owning my files.
Recommendation. If you would like to try Apple Music, don't do it on your main library, create new one.

 

[wanha]

Apple Music essentially carried over the iTunes song and playlist management features and UI, which is one of the best things about Apple Music and the main way that I use it.

The Apple Music streaming section of the app (which is a bit of convoluted mess) exists mainly as a way for me to add new songs to my library and playlists, and I use stars, stats, and comments to create smart playlists from my library.

 

[wanha]

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

sort of like me and eggplants - not a fan and have spent very little time thinking about them

 

[il_teo77]

You forgot, or maybe didn't have time, to mention two important things in iTunes history:
- abandoning DRM (a huge battle by Jobs and, nowadays, alas, no longer a thing with streaming)
- the increase of bitrate which Apple did at a certain point (don't remember the year) where you could pay a difference and own higher quality music. I specifically remember that because it cost me an arm and a leg...

 

[TechRunner]

I really enjoyed buying songs, curating playlists and switching up music on my various iPods back then. Good times.

 

[basehead617]

streaming was the death of the music industry - music is now more of a hobby for people with other jobs or barely surviving.. there basically is no industry per se.

 

[0049190]

I stopped buying music from iTunes a few years ago when it became clear they were not going to sell hi-res lossless songs. I prefer to buy my music rather than rent it.

 

[0049190]

I miss the iPod and iTunes Store. It all seemed to die when Tim Cook took over.

 

[0049190]

iTunes used to get some flack for being 'bloated' but I have yet to find any alternative as good at organising a monstrous digital media collection. Its a sad state of affairs when kids these days are more likely to know what a CD is than an MP3!

The kids are buying Vinyl again. Never thought I would see that come back.

 

[0049190]

iTunes started to go downhill when they ditched coverflow.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Who remembers Limewire? 😊

 

[HazeAndHahmahneez]

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.

Macrumorrs is soooo awesooooome. Love this site and yeah it’s stories like these. I remember I only recently (2020) got into MacBooks so it was dell or Lenovo laptops for me and that included limewite/napaster and then plugging in my chunky Sony mp3 playa and doing it like that. Missed the iTunes/iPod boat and basically went balls out on Apple Music since like the iPhone 5 (?)/6 days…have like 3 or 4 iTunes total purchases.

Early iTunes memories revolve around the iconic iPod commercials…looking back at it and from afar, yeah, def seems like good times!

Apple the best baby!

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

Yeah…Makes CENTS to bury the one and done purchasing versus promoting the subscription stuff…

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.

Ahhh Steve Jobs…what CANT that man do?!…love these angles and industry tidbits.

I still don't get why they had to move Movies out of from iTunes Store app.
And it's so weird that they still keep iTunes Store app on tvOS, but ask users to go to Apple TV app instead.

Def moved so as to get Apple TV app traffic. Oh, that Tim Cook, he’s a great promoter I’ll give him that…Don King Cook lol

The kids are buying Vinyl again. Never thought I would see that come back.

8 tracks next?



I guess main thing I’d like to see is album artwork make a comeback…don’t see it happening, though..also lose the bug where songs/albums delete from my library and I didn’t do that : (

 

[Icelus]

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

streaming was the death of the music industry - music is now more of a hobby for people with other jobs or barely surviving.. there basically is no industry per se.

This is absolute nonsense. Stop repeating fairy tales you have heard on the internet.

 

[RoadWarrior56]

I have been buying music on iTunes since 2003, and I have only used streaming sporadically on Apple Music, when occasional deals show up for limited times. I refuse to live my entire life on the subscription model. I would rather own my media, whenever possible.

 

[avz]

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

Is it because of the Napster thing?

As far as I know Metallica was always about having total control of their music from day one. This is why they started making videos late into their career when they were comfortable with the level of control they had in making videos.

 

[Warped9]

I don’t stream music or movies or television shows. If I like something I’ll buy it then no one can take it away from me. I refuse to be captive to a service that can take away something I like arbitrarily whenever it wants.

 

[darngooddesign]

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...

 

[darngooddesign]

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.

I buy from BC as well because the artists earn more, but there is no real difference in control between editing the tags from BC files and iTunes Store files. In both cases, it's your fault if your music library is unorganized.

 

[Xavier]

I used to collect free song promotion codes on soda bottle lids and rack up a considerable amount of money for purchasing songs and albums. Kinda miss those days and maintaining a library of music. It feels like it's come full circle as now I collect vinyl records!

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

For those that think this era was the glory days of the music industry...

 

[iamgalt]

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.

You can get, at least a bit, of that experience by purchasing albums and songs, and downloading them; and not relying on streaming.

 

[spunkystrawberries]

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?

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?

Well I accidentally replied twice and can’t figure out how to delete one. So I’ll just leave it here for extra effect. 😉

 

[spunkystrawberries]

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?

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. I was like… iMac DV? No… knock off iMac? 🤓