“iTunes Music Store: 20 Years of Music Revolution and Countering Piracy”

The iTunes Music Store milestone and its 20 years of offering songs on demand. On April 28, 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store, a platform that allowed Mac users to download individual songs for just 99 cents.

The initiative was a resounding success, since on its first day, the store offered more than 200,000 songs from different record labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner.

Apple’s iTunes Music Store counts piracy.

The launch of the iTunes Music Store came at a time when music piracy was on the rise, thanks to peer-to-peer file-sharing programs like LimeWire and KaZaA.

The iTunes offering provided a legal and convenient solution for music lovers who wanted to download songs without fear of copyright infringement.

Apple’s music store also introduced the feature of free 30-second preview of any song, allowing users to listen to a portion of the song before purchasing it.

In addition, the iTunes Music Store offered the option to burn an unlimited number of CDs for personal use and put music on an unlimited number of iPods for listening on the go.

A feature that was highlighted in the press release of the then CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs.

The success of the iTunes Music Store was undeniable, with Apple reporting that customers had purchased more than 13 million songs from the store by the time it expanded its availability to Windows users in October 2003.

The American technology company quickly became the “number one music download service in the world”.

Over the years, Apple has phased out the iTunes brand, and today the music store is found in the Music app on the Mac.

In addition, Apple’s music streaming service, Apple Music, has eclipsed the online music store in popularity.

Many customers now choose to pay a monthly subscription fee for unlimited access to a music library that includes up to 100 million songs.

Relevant data that you probably did not know about the iTunes Music Store.

There are some additional data that may be interesting to mention:

• The initial success of the iTunes Music Store was impressive. During its first week, over a million songs were downloaded, and in just one month, over 10 million songs were sold.
• Although the iTunes Music Store was a success for Apple, it also received criticism from some musicians and record labels. Some artists, such as Radiohead and The Beatles, refused to list their music in the store due to Apple’s pricing and distribution policies.
• In 2019, Apple announced that the iTunes Music Store would be closing for good in 2020, as part of a reorganization of its media strategy. However, the service was ultimately not shut down entirely and became a section within the Apple Music app.
• The arrival of the iTunes Music Store ushered in a new era in the music industry. The ability to download songs legally for an affordable price opened up a new way of distributing and consuming music online, which led to the creation of other online music streaming and downloading services.

iTunes, an absolute hit for decades.

Like all Apple company products, Apple’s iTunes Music Store has marked a milestone in the music industry.

This super tool has given consumers the opportunity to access a wide variety of music on demand legally and at affordable prices.

The launch of the iTunes Music Store demonstrated that consumers don’t want to be treated like criminals and artists don’t want their valuable work stolen.

Over the years, the platform has evolved to accommodate changing music consumption trends and has been instrumental in the development of the modern music industry.