On April 28th, the iTunes Store basked in a milestone 10th birthday. Two years before its 2003 launch (as the iTunes Music Store), Apple introduced the iTunes client as a desktop music management program and implemented it as the device manager for the first iPod later in 2001. In those two years, Apple laid the groundwork for what can reasonably be called the iTunes era of music.

Apple did not invent digital music, even though for many iTunes embodies 21st century music buying. However, during the past 10 years, it has become the US' top music retailer, with customers currently downloading 15,000 songs per minute from the app's library of 26 million songs, according to an Apple spokesperson. Since its launch, it has evolved into the hub of a powerhouse media / tech ecosystem that turned Apple into the world's most valuable company in 2012.

As a symbolic milestone, the iTunes anniversary encourages reflection on the past, a survey of the present and predictions of the future. Digital music continues to evolve, for businesses, consumers and musicians.

SETTING THE STAGE FOR ITUNES - A Decade of iTunes

yay....I love going to I-tunes and browsing for hours in the hopes of finding something new

oh wait, that was a record store flashback

fuck I-tunes

Thank God for iTunes! The record industry did everything they could to push customers away, but Steve Jobs swooped in and all but singlehandedly saved music buying. I do wish more b-sides and obscure albums were available, but all in all the iTunes (Music) Store has been much more good than bad.

AlexdeParis said:

Thank God for iTunes! The record industry did everything they could to push customers away, but Steve Jobs swooped in and all but singlehandedly saved music buying. I do wish more b-sides and obscure albums were available, but all in all the iTunes (Music) Store has been much more good than bad.

Not sure I agree with you on this. but I'm old school.

Most of my daughter's teenage friends download their tunes for free and share amongst themselves using different media.

iTunes is great for those who want to cherry pick their tunes but I'll stick with my vinyl thanks.

I've never owned an Apple product so I must be in the minority.

you mean iTunes or the iTunes store? cause that makes ALL the difference for me....


I looooooove to carry along so many songs in my pocket on the iPhone
I ripped all my CDs to my computer
and I'm kind nerdy when it comes to tag them correctly, to put the correct cover pic on it and such
I still have thousands of vinyls to go through, and probably will never get time for that



however.... i have yet not bought one single song on the iTunes store. fuckit. REALLY fuckit

Shafty said:

AlexdeParis said:

Thank God for iTunes! The record industry did everything they could to push customers away, but Steve Jobs swooped in and all but singlehandedly saved music buying. I do wish more b-sides and obscure albums were available, but all in all the iTunes (Music) Store has been much more good than bad.

Not sure I agree with you on this. but I'm old school.

Most of my daughter's teenage friends download their tunes for free and share amongst themselves using different media.

iTunes is great for those who want to cherry pick their tunes but I'll stick with my vinyl thanks.

I've never owned an Apple product so I must be in the minority.

I'm with you on this. I don't mind paying 15 € for a CD, but I certainly wouldn't pay nothing for a digital file. The experience of listening to a vinyl or a CD is, for me, completely different to that of listening to digital files, and I'm not talking about sound quality.

Yes, you guys are clearly in the minority. There's a reason the iTunes Store has been the biggest music seller in years: for most consumers, convenience is the ultimate experience. I prefer to own CDs for the most part, but the iTunes Store is ideal for singles (it was nice to get "Blurred Lines" before it was available in stores) and fast, easy purchases of tracks here and there (like a song for a presentation or slideshow). Yes, there's an ever-shrinking group of people who will never download music, but Napster proved there was a demand for that service and the iTunes Store made it both easy and successful.

Dancelot said:

you mean iTunes or the iTunes store? cause that makes ALL the difference for me....


I looooooove to carry along so many songs in my pocket on the iPhone
I ripped all my CDs to my computer
and I'm kind nerdy when it comes to tag them correctly, to put the correct cover pic on it and such
I still have thousands of vinyls to go through, and probably will never get time for that



however.... i have yet not bought one single song on the iTunes store. fuckit. REALLY fuckit

Funny, while I don't exactly buy much stuff from the iTunes store at all, it's great for b-sides and rarities. iTunes, on the other hand, is one of the absolute worst programs I've ever used. There are so many better programs for sorting and listening to music that don't take up as much resources as iTunes does, and that are much easier to use. For example, foobar rocks.

theblueangel said:

Dancelot said:

you mean iTunes or the iTunes store? cause that makes ALL the difference for me....


I looooooove to carry along so many songs in my pocket on the iPhone
I ripped all my CDs to my computer
and I'm kind nerdy when it comes to tag them correctly, to put the correct cover pic on it and such
I still have thousands of vinyls to go through, and probably will never get time for that



however.... i have yet not bought one single song on the iTunes store. fuckit. REALLY fuckit

Funny, while I don't exactly buy much stuff from the iTunes store at all, it's great for b-sides and rarities. iTunes, on the other hand, is one of the absolute worst programs I've ever used. There are so many better programs for sorting and listening to music that don't take up as much resources as iTunes does, and that are much easier to use. For example, foobar rocks.

I know iTunes is terrible in some ways, and I'm sure there are better ones out there (however the last version of Windows Media player I evaluated years ago was HORRIBLE. never! again!)

but with the iPhone I'm somewhat trapped in that damn Apple ecosystem, and I'm way too lazy to constantly switch or transfer tracks between different libraries or programs

3rdeyedude said:

yay....I love going to I-tunes and browsing for hours in the hopes of finding something new

oh wait, that was a record store flashback

fuck I-tunes

I actually like to browse in Itunes - much better in scope than most record stores nowadays. Especially those that only carry the current chart toppers. Same goes for browsing in Amazon or Discolog...

Tbh i download albums for free by Torrent, and edit them, add covers and make my own library in my iTunes program on my computer so i could open it everytime I'm on and start listening to my albums. But off computer i buy records, that gives it more value IMO, i also give too much shit about voice, production, instruments when i listen to a song played on my record player than the song played on my iTunes..

Apple keeps 30 cents for itself each time a 99 cent song is paid for. The record label takes the rest and pays the artist/songwriter and producer. A major artist can expect to receive 8 cents per download.

My thoughts...

Overall, iTunes has become another option on how I purchase music. As I've mentioned here (the org) before for good or for bad, the music industry has pushed me in was I may not have chosen to intuitively. The facts of the matter are, its convenient and easier to purchase music today via a digital download. Whether I purchase or get free music from Amazon, CD Baby, iTunes, an independent label, directly from a musicians website, or YouTube it all ends up in iTunes.

iTunes is a resource hog, its search engine sucks, (Napster was the best), music files can end-up in other music folders but their interface in my opinion is still far superior than the alternatives. I'm aware Apple is currently being accused and investigated for price fixing book via iBooks store; but Apple iTunes stopped the music industry from fucking over the consumer.

Artist/musicians now have choices on how they'll package and sale their music. Unlike Amazon, an artist can sale their music directly to Apple, so, you'd get about ~ 70.00% per single and/or album. I'm just sayin'. You don't have to be a slave to record label... the options to sale your music through iTunes, is an option for the artist. For this reason alone I'm a fan if iTunes.

Identity said:

Apple keeps 30 cents for itself each time a 99 cent song is paid for. The record label takes the rest and pays the artist/songwriter and producer. A major artist can expect to receive 8 cents per download.

Sounds like a normal distribution chain. The more independent you go as an artist (e.g. own label, writing/producing yourself etc.) the more remains in your pocket...

Identity said:

Apple keeps 30 cents for itself each time a 99 cent song is paid for. The record label takes the rest and pays the artist/songwriter and producer. A major artist can expect to receive 8 cents per download.

So nothing has changed 4 the artist at the end of the day.

A direct-to-consumer platform is what an artist needs to have an advantage over the avaricious system of the music industry. Eliminate the middle man, own your work and, most important, keep the lion's share.

Identity said:

Apple keeps 30 cents for itself each time a 99 cent song is paid for. The record label takes the rest and pays the artist/songwriter and producer. A major artist can expect to receive 8 cents per download.

and thats a major artist. This is a reason that older artists now are opting for EP's, like Motley Crue and Fleetwood Mac just to name 2 they arent panning doing full albums, for a few reasons, the cost is too much on distributing and shipping etc... and then sales dont really warrant a release. Physical CDs and special things are going to become so limited u will only get them on artists websites from now on. As for the EP thing, with older artists they can do this and make more because they renegotiate their "digital" release deals, alot of them didnt have downloads in their contracts when they signed in the 70's and 80's or even 90's for that part, so they can now get better deals.

it may have saved the industry

but it has DESTROYED the concept of "album"

JoeTyler said:

it may have saved the industry

but it has DESTROYED the concept of "album"

Not 4 me.

I'm purchased well over 100 cd's in the last 5 months.

Graycap23 said:

JoeTyler said:

it may have saved the industry

but it has DESTROYED the concept of "album"

Not 4 me.

I'm purchased well over 100 cd's in the last 5 months.

wow

save your money/time/hard-drive space for something more important dude

JoeTyler said:

Graycap23 said:

Not 4 me.

I'm purchased well over 100 cd's in the last 5 months.

wow

save your money/time/hard-drive space for something more important dude

Lol...........I need the real cd.

Don't do downloads.

JoeTyler said:

it may have saved the industry

but it has DESTROYED the concept of "album"

Nah, rather than destroy the concept of an album, it's revived the concept of a single.

being a music junkie, I've embraced downloading, to the point that I've ripped all my CD's and will probably never touch them ever again. well maybe for the liner notes.

I've ripped most of my vinyl and a few old cassettes, as well as videos for my ipod. I LOVE having it all in one place and the privacy of a great pair of headphones. I can get lost in my own pop culture world, listening to various decades and genres of music, along with my most favorite concert films and music videos.

Don't get me started on youtube!

I'm still not crazy about the concept (I miss Wrecka Stows), but I absolutely love the technology!!

[Edited 6/4/13 12:38pm]

Graycap23 said:

JoeTyler said:

wow

save your money/time/hard-drive space for something more important dude

Lol...........I need the real cd.

Don't do downloads.

I also got maybe 100 CDs this year alone


and that reminds me, there is one good thing I actually DO like about the iTunes store, especially since they have rather long previews for songs: I can REALLY check out an album and decide whether I like it or not (for me that would be mainly old material and back catalouges)
and IF I like it, then I go over to Amazon and order the CD

Graycap23 said:

JoeTyler said:

it may have saved the industry

but it has DESTROYED the concept of "album"

Not 4 me.

I'm purchased well over 100 cd's in the last 5 months.

Despite having an iTunes account, I purchase all new releases (and oldies) in CD format. I occasionally go to iTunes/Amazon for singles, but only when I can't buy product directly from the artist.

The internet has both sides. There's the possibility of downloading stuff, legally or not (something which I very rarely do), but there's also the possibility of getting all the CDs you want. I mean, living in Spain, now I have the chance to buy whatever I want through Amazon if it's new or through ebay if not, records that I wouldn't find here in Madrid. So there's a much wider range of possibilities to get physical music, which is great. However, when I'm sure, or at least I find it very likely, that I'll find a record in a physical shop, I'll still buy it there, since for me the experience of visiting a brick-and-mortar shop is much more special than buying online.