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iTunes Music Store Turns 20 Today: 'Just 99 Cents Per Song'

That was such a sweet time. I remember the free single of the day, which made Sara Bareilles a one hit wonder with Love Song. I found a few good songs on the Free Single of the Day, even though a lot of it was not all that great. Feels like very long ago.

Happy 20 years to the product that changed the music industry.
 
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TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️ said:
Voting time! Which one is your favorite iTunes Logo? 🎵

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2nd from top left and first from top right.

The last three on the bottom row? SMFH.

Apple's UI minimalism is just as obnoxious as it's insistence on even desktops being obnoxiously thin for the sake of being thin.

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Wow, what an incredible wave of nostalgia this brought. I recall the iPod / iTunes intros very clearly. I used iTunes all the way through college and a little bit beyond, before transitioning completely to streaming. Simpler times. HBD iTunes
 
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dwaltwhit said:
I wonder if they take the "loss" by keeping the prices low since there are fewer people in the UK. Unrelated, but what would the adjective be for someone from the United Kingdom? United Kingdommers?
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British is the adjective. The people are Britons. The full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
 
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They should celebrate by giving us lossless tracks to purchase! It wouldn’t cannibalise their streaming service. If anything it would improve their market share and take away from CD and maybe vinyl sales
 
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Early days Apple also provided a pretty good number of free ($0.00) songs each week (I think). I like free, so I always downloaded every one. Some big names might be in the free list, but more likely the freebies were from upcoming artists. Whomever was making these choices knew music, and my big collection of free songs includes many from artists who grew from "upcoming" to "major artist" over the many years since songs were free from Apple.

Note: this was not U2 on the iPod. You got to choose to DL what you liked. As I noted, I DL'ed everything ever week cause... FREE.
 
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Apple Knowledge Navigator said:
When I tell people that I still buy my music, I get laughed at.
Obviously it's everyone's choice, but my rationale - that I would have to buy as much music as the cost of a streaming service to justify Apple Music, which would be about 10 tracks a month - makes sense unless you're willing to treat music as one customisable radio station that you don't own.
Most of my music has come from 0.99 purchases (about 2 or 3 a month from what I've Shazammed) and CDs.
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Another point: Streaming services giveth, then they taketh away. Even Apple Music will pull songs off their library now and again. If I like a song enough to want to listen to it long-term, I will buy it. Usually iTunes, sometimes Amazon MP3s. * **

* free digital content as a reward for choosing later Amazon Day shipping

** one of the reasons the iPad hasn’t wholly replaced my Mac - I can’t bring these MP3s into my iTunes Library on iPadOS
 
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They would also charge $9.99 for a full digital album in a time where you would spend $17 for a CD and then just rip it to your computer to listen to anyways. This was the beginning of the end for CD shops like Sam Goody, Blockbuster Music, etc.
 
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Remember when Pepsi did their promotion where you could get a free song if you got a code under the cap? I was in college at the time and it didn't take me long to figure out that if you angled it right, you could see if the bottle had a code before purchasing it.

Jesus... its been 20 years since I've been in college. I feel so... old...
 
dwaltwhit said:
I wonder if they take the "loss" by keeping the prices low since there are fewer people in the UK. Unrelated, but what would the adjective be for someone from the United Kingdom? United Kingdommers?
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United Subjects
 
SW3029 said:
I was like you until about a year ago when I finally gave Apple Music a try. Been a subscriber ever since. Like you, I never thought I'd be buying more songs than $10 worth a month so why subscribe to Apple Music? But I've just discovered so much great new music on Apple Music – I easily consume dozens and dozens of new songs a month now that I love. I never would have discovered those songs without Apple Music.
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Same, I still buy music (mostly through bandcamp or vinyl), but I use the streaming services for new music discovery. It’s worth every penny!

I even stream the music I already own. Hopefully a few dollars of my subscription fee ends up in the pockets of my favorite artists

Edit: The way I see it, some of my favorite albums I’ve listened to thousands of times, and if digital music didn’t exist I would have had to buy the same album multiple times when the record/tape/CD was too worn. The least I can do to support the artists is stream their music so they’re getting a bit of continuous income (they’re indie bands/artists for the most part)
 
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needsomecoffee said:
I just commented re: the free songs each week. Also remember this: Me standing in Safeway going thru each Pepsi bottle in the cooler. Fun times.
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LOL makes me think of when the cokes had names on them. I'd be checking every one for me or people I knew.
 
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