Every Apple user knew iTunes and could not avoid the service. Today, however, iTunes has almost disappeared from the scene. But why?
In the late 1990s, pirates took over the internet: the music pirates. Songs and entire albums migrate digitally to music enthusiasts’ hard drives via various file sharing platforms and networks, both free and illegally. Napster, Gnutella and Co. cause swelling of the carotid arteries in the music industry. However, record labels don’t even have a suitable legal business model to offer. Instead, the music bosses send lawyers and sue the mostly young music pirates with lawsuits. However, the wave of illegal downloads continues. Until imaginative Apple boss Steve Jobs revolutionized the music business with iTunes.
With MP3 came the music pirates
In the history of the Internet, users have often anticipated certain developments through their behavior. This certainly also applies to music pirates. The question arises again: why did people all over the world start distributing and downloading music illegally?
Technical developments have played their part. The disc has now been replaced by the digital CD. In addition, there is a digital format, MP3, which reduces the size of music files without significant loss of quality. Sharing music is now much easier, even on slow internet connections.
The industry supports the trend with MP3 players and CD burners. Before CDs existed, people copied songs onto compact cassettes. Meanwhile, you can put together your own CDs of your favorite tracks just as easily using a burner. Thanks to the MP3 format, a CD contains many more songs than a music cassette.
The idea of iTunes was born
The music industry doesn’t like this development at all. CD sales are declining worldwide as people prefer to download their favorite music for free through the Internet.
Record label subscription models are on the verge of insignificance. Reason: the high subscription prices and the relatively manageable range. Why would anyone subscribe to a few select artists when millions of songs are available for free online?
Even Steve Jobs of Apple acknowledges the problem. The company is keeping a very close eye on what’s happening there. While Apple doesn’t know the music business, he knows exactly what people want in the digital world.
Apple initially reacted defensively to the growing demand for MP3s. The company does not offer any special software. The company’s Quicktime player couldn’t keep up with programs popular at the time, such as Winamp or Real Player. To save time and money, Apple bought the rights to the MP3 software SoundJam MP in 2000. The company gets developers involved right away.
Apple initiates a three-stage revolution
A year later, the first version of the new Apple iTunes music software appears. The program is still very similar to SoundJam MP in appearance. The computer manufacturer has taken the first step.
However, Apple boss Steve Jobs doesn’t just copy popular formats, he always makes them a little better. That is why the ingenious visionary has long been thinking about the next step. Because Steve Jobs pursues the goal of bringing the music pirates back to legality.
Apple is then busy working on iTunes and at the end of 2001 presents another thing: the iPod. The small MP3 player, about the size of a deck of cards, could hold 1,000 songs, an unimaginable number at the time. For comparison: only 20 songs fit on a compact 60-minute cassette.
With iTunes, Apple now has music software that is now quite passable, with which an iPod can be filled quickly and easily. Listening to music is now possible everywhere and never ending with 1000 songs.
Apple has taken two steps. The third will change the world forever. On April 28, 2003, the company unveiled iTunes version 4.0, which was actually not particularly spectacular. But the new version includes the iTunes Music Store, the first digital record store. A single costs 99 cents there, an entire album 9.99 US dollars – not free, but completely legal. How did Steve Jobs do it?
Also read: Apple discontinues the iPod after 21 years
iTunes offers an acceptable deal
The head of a computer company, of all people, is able to do what the record labels themselves have not been able to do for years: create an entirely new music sales channel. Steve Jobs signed contracts with what were then the five major US labels, BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner. Only 200,000 songs are available in the new iTunes Music Store on opening day. But the demand is immense.
A week after opening, one million songs have already been sold. It took a year through record label subscription channels to get to that number. Apple, on the other hand, sells 100 million songs a year. The initial skepticism of the music industry is gradually dissipating.
iTunes now also works on Windows computers. This allows Apple to win more and more record labels for iTunes. Above all, the company gets the subject of music downloads out of the dirty corner. Because Steve Jobs had recognized that people want to trade and copy music as easily as possible. If the offer is right, they pay for it too.
iTunes is also changing the listening habits of music lovers. Because now you don’t have to buy a whole album anymore, you just buy what you like. As a music fan, it’s debatable whether this is actually an improvement. Because of course the record labels also react to this and produce assembly-line music that always works according to the same pattern.
Paying artists was also much more generous than in today’s streaming era. Because two-thirds of the revenue goes to record labels.
Streaming puts an end to the iTunes model
Speaking of streaming: Steve Jobs correctly recognized then that people want to own music. With ever faster internet connections, however, that attitude is changing too. Since the 2010s in particular, more and more streaming services have been established, attracting them with cheap monthly subscriptions.
Apple continues to rely on its iTunes Store and song sales. It wasn’t until 2015 that the company unveiled its own subscription model, Apple Music. At this point, however, the competition for Spotify or Deezer is already miles away.
Spotify, in particular, puts a lot of energy into improving algorithms. Therefore, Spotify listeners are recommended songs that harmonize much better with their taste in music.
In 2019, Apple reacted to the changing listening habits of music enthusiasts and buried iTunes, at least on Apple computers. In the future, you will be able to listen and stream music through Apple Music. There is still a digital record store. However, Apple is now focusing on streaming as well.
iTunes lives on Windows computers. If iTunes eventually disappears there as well, the software will still be remembered for changing the music business and listening to music forever.
