ITunes Store
Encyclopedia
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States
. On February 24, 2010, the store served its 10 billionth song download; this milestone was reached in just under seven years of being online. As of October 4, 2011, the store served its 16 billionth song.
While most downloaded files previously included restrictions on their use, enforced by FairPlay
, Apple's implementation of digital rights management
, iTunes initiated a shift into selling DRM-free music in most countries, marketed as iTunes Plus. On January 6, 2009, Apple announced that DRM
had been removed from 80% of the entire music catalog in the U.S. Full iTunes Plus availability was achieved on April 7, 2009 in the U.S., coinciding with the introduction of a three-tiered pricing model; however, television shows and movies are still FairPlay
-protected.
(AAC) format, which is the MPEG-4-specified successor to MP3
. Songs with DRM
are encoded at 128 kbit/s. As of the January 2009 Macworld Expo, Apple has announced that all music in iTunes will be available without DRM, and encoded at the higher-quality rate of 256 kbit/s. Previously, this model, known as "iTunes Plus", had been available only for music from EMI and some independent labels. Previews, ninety seconds in length, are available free, prior to buying a song. iTunes had the option between fully loading previews before playing, or simply streaming the preview; the former feature was removed with the release of iTunes 8.
Feature length movies and television episodes are available for purchase. Movies tend to be priced below a DVD
of the same film while television episodes are approximately double the cost of a song.
Finally, some games are available for some models of iPods for various prices, but none as expensive as a feature length film. In addition, the iTunes Store now offers Apps, which are applications used for various purposes (games, maps, movie showtimes, etc.) that are compatible with the iPod Touch and iPhone, although some Apps are specifically for the iPhone only. Some Apps cost money (called "Paid Apps") and some are free (called "Free Apps"). Developers can decide which price they want for apps. When someone downloads an App, 70 percent of the purchase goes to the developer(s), and 30 percent goes to Apple.
At the Macworld 2008 keynote, Steve Jobs
, who was Apple's CEO at the time, announced iTunes movie rentals. Movies are available for rent in the iTunes Store on the same day they are released on DVD. They are only viewable for 24 hours after users begin viewing them. This feature is not yet available in all countries but it is available in the United States
, the United Kingdom
and Canada
There are usually three types of free songs on the United States iTunes Store: the regular featured free song, the Discovery Download (featuring songs from different genres), and the Canción de la Semana (Latino free single of the week). Most recently, iTunes has been weekly offering free music videos.
to access the store. This software is available only for certain versions of the Macintosh or Windows operating systems.
A user must also pay with an iTunes gift card
or a credit card
with a billing address in Australia
, Austria
, Belgium
, Bulgaria
, Canada
, Colombia
, the Czech Republic
, Cyprus
, Denmark
, Estonia
, Finland
, France
, Germany
, Greece
, Hungary
, the Republic of Ireland
, Italy
, Japan
, Latvia
, Lithuania
, Luxembourg
, Malta
, Mexico
, the Netherlands
, New Zealand
, Norway
, Poland
, Portugal
, Puerto Rico
, Romania
, Slovakia
, Slovenia
, Spain
, Sweden
, Switzerland
, United Kingdom
, or the United States
. Apple also offers other payment methods (like Paypal
), which differ from country to country. Residents in other countries can only buy a gift card from a merchant or download free podcasts and previews.
The release of the iPhone
and iPod Touch
brought the introduction of the iTunes Music Store. This version of the iTunes Store allows owners of the iPod Touch and iPhone to purchase music and download podcasts directly on the portable music device. Originally to access the store the user had to be connected to a Wi-Fi network in order to enter the store, hence its original name: the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. However, at Macworld 2009, Apple issued a software update which automatically allowed 3G and EDGE users to access the store's full functionality for files smaller than 10 MB. The 3.0 update added the ability to download movies, TV shows, audiobooks, iTunes U, and ringtones on the devices. However, on 18 February 2010, Apple increased the 10MB limit to 20MB.
for the iTunes Store over the phone through AppleCare
; Timothy Noah
of Slate
has also found a customer service
line. Most customer service inquiries are handled online, via Report a Problem link in iTunes Application.
, Universal
, Warner
, Sony Music Entertainment
, and BMG (the last two would later merge to form Sony BMG
- which was later turned back into Sony Music Entertainment
, with BMG becoming defunct as of October 8, 2008). Music from more than 2,000 independent labels
were added later, the first from The Orchard
on June 24, 2003.
The store has more than 18,000,000 songs, including exclusive tracks from numerous artists. Not all artists are available on iTunes, including some popular ones such as AC/DC
or Garth Brooks.
New songs are added to the iTunes catalog every day, while the iTunes Store is updated each Tuesday. Apple also releases a 'Single of the Week' in both English and sometimes Spanish and usually a 'Discovery Download' on Tuesdays, which are available for free for one week.
Downloaded songs come with song information (name, artist, album) already filled out, though iTunes provides a free service by Gracenote
to do this for songs not purchased from the store, although they must be imported with iTunes. Songs that have an entry in the iTunes Store also come with album artwork (Artwork is embedded in the metadata). As of the release of iTunes 7, the artwork can be obtained for songs not purchased from the store for free if the user has an iTunes Store account. Purchased songs do not come with lyrics already typed in to the application's window for them; nor does iTunes provide a service for acquiring the missing lyrics. However, several third-party applications exist to locate and automatically add lyrics to the user's music.
includes songs from Peacock Records
, Argo Records
& Capitol Records
, among many others. Greatest Hits
by Red Hot Chili Peppers
has only one song, "Higher Ground", that is not available for download on a per song basis, whilst "Circus" (Britney Spears
2008 album) has two songs that are only available for album download only which are "Rock Me In" and "Phonography".
and iTunes Essentials. iTunes Essentials contains groupings of music based upon the artist of the music (Artist Essentials), the genre
or history of the music (Genres and History), or any other similarities (My Groove). Each grouping of music is essentially a pre-made playlist
. The songs in the playlist are all listed in order of their importance, starting with the artist's most well-known song. These playlists usually contain either 45 or 75 songs equally distributed in three sections: The Basics (the biggest, best, and most important songs), Next Steps (usually composed of popular songs just beyond the hits) and Deep Cuts (under-appreciated songs). Occasionally, specific Artist Essentials do not have a Deep Cuts section. This usually depends on how many releases the artist has completed over the years. Within ‘Genres,’ one can enter music stores that only have one genre. These genres include alternative, blues, children's music
, Christian
& gospel
, classical
, comedy
(this includes comedy rock
and stand-up comedy
), country
, dance
, electronic
, hip-hop/rap, jazz
, Latino
, pop
, R&B/soul
, reggae
, rock
, singer–songwriter
, soundtrack
, vocal
, and world
. There are a total of 20 genres in the U.S. music store. ‘Pre-Orders’ lists albums that one can pre-order before the album is released. ‘Celebrity Playlists’ contains lists of songs chosen and described by celebrities. ‘Free Downloads’ are songs that subscribed iTunes Store users can obtain for free.
On November 1, 2006, Apple created a category for Latino and Hispanic content, “iTunes Latino”. Telemundo and Mun2 made some of their popular programs available for purchase, becoming the first Hispanic television content in the store. It offers music, music videos, audiobooks, podcasts and television shows in Spanish in a single concentrated area. The brief descriptions given to the content is in Spanish as well as several sub-categories. Gibraltar
ian Flamenco
Metal
band Breed 77
, released an exclusive album called Un Encuentro
to coincide with the launch of “iTunes Latino”. It features 11 songs, all from previous albums, but all sung in Spanish
.
in its song titles. This has resulted in a Scunthorpe glitch
, by which inoffensive titles are censored due to a coincidental string of letters.
If the song has an explicit label, it will be marked "explicit" next to the song title. If a song is marked "explicit" it is unavailable for purchase if "restrict explicit content" is checked under the parental controls preference. Often there will be a "clean" mark next to the title of some songs, meaning the lyrics have been censored, and is available to purchase on all accounts. Generally if a song is marked "clean" there is an explicit version available as well.
. This is the same format available if the user signs up directly with Audible.com and chose the "iPod" format. The main difference is that it is unnecessary to sign up for a subscription to get audiobooks as is the case with Audible. A small discount is provided through buying audiobooks through the iTunes Store, but on a selective basis by Apple in comparison to an "always on member discount" if one has an Audible subscription.
The "Audiobooks" category also includes radio shows and all other audio-only programs, except podcasts.
s and episodes of popular television
programs. Apple made a deal with Disney
to be the first supplier of TV shows. The first shows available included episodes of Lost
and Desperate Housewives
with each episode becoming available the day after it originally aired on broadcast TV. Several short animated films by Pixar
are available.
The selling of videos on iTunes sparked considerable debate as to whether there was a paying audience for programming available for free on TV. As MP3 Newswire pointed out, users are not so much paying for the TV programs themselves. Instead they are really paying for a service that offers the convenience of someone else digitizing free broadcast episodes for them for their portable device, each episode in commercial-free form, and a convenient place to select and download individual shows. Through an updated version of QuickTime Pro
, users can create their own videos for the iPod, including digitized versions of programs recorded on their VCR if they wish to take the time and effort to save the cost.
With the launch of iTunes 8, many TV shows, such as The Office and Heroes
, have begun offering their programing in High Definition
(HD). The High Definition video on the iTunes Store is in 1280x720 resolution rather than the better known 1920x1080 Full HD
on Blu-ray
discs.
In addition to the launch of high definition TV shows, iTunes 8 allowed for the rental of movies through the iTunes Store. The playing of movie rentals must begin within 30 days of purchase and must be completed within 24 hours of having been started.
In March 2009, Apple announced that iTunes customers can purchase and rent selected movie titles in HD from their computers. Previously, HD movie rentals were only available for purchase and playback on the Apple TV. HD movies available for purchase are priced at $19.99, introduced with titles such as Quantum of Solace and Twilight
.
An advantage iTunes U has over traditional podcasting tools is that access to content can be restricted because of the use of the iTunes infrastructure end-to-end. Authentication is handled by the member college or university, who prompts a visitor for information (like an account and password specific to that institution) and then passes a certain token on to the iTunes U web site. That token contains (indicates) the access level for that visitor. An example might be a class podcast that can only be accessed by students enrolled in the class.
iTunes U has material from myriad places including colleges and universities. There are over 350,000 files available to download. Individual universities can be visited through the Universities & Colleges section, and other institutions can be visited through the "Beyond Campus" section.
iTunes U functions much like Podcasts in that users can either download individual streams or subscribe to a stream so that iTunes will automatically download it.
Since making changes to individual iTunes U sites may be difficult to users not well-versed in XML
tools (i.e. XQuery
), Apple has created the Woolamaloo Automator to aid users in the editing of sites. The Woolamaloo Automator makes it easy for non-programmers to use the iTunes U web services. By using the workflow tool on Apple’s desktop, Automator, the Woolamaloo actions can not only be configured but can then be combined to help with any routine iTunes U administrative tasks. The Woolamaloo Automator has become popular because of its easy design.
or iPod Nano
with video playback. Launch titles included: Bejeweled
, Cubis, Mini Golf, Mahjong
, Pac-Man
, Tetris
, Texas Hold 'Em
, Vortex
, and Zuma. Though they are downloaded through iTunes, the games cannot be played within the application itself; they can only be played on an iPod Classic or iPod Nano.
purchases exclusively with the iPad
. The iPhone OS software update on 21 June 2010 also allowed iPhone and iPod touch customers in America to buy iBooks. Other countries are still waiting for the release of the iBookstore. There has been no word from Apple on when this will occur.
Since its launch, the iTunes Store has crossed many milestones. In the first 18 hours, the store sold about 275,000 tracks and more than 1,000,000 in its first 5 days. When released for Windows in October 2003, iTunes was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times in the first 3 days, selling more than 1,000,000 songs in that period. On December 15, 2003 Apple announced that it had crossed 25 million songs sold.
In January 2004 at the Macworld Conference & Expo
in San Francisco
, Steve Jobs announced (Sellers, 2004) that an unnamed person had purchased US$29,500 worth of music. On March 15, 2004, Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded 50 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. A song sold on iTunes gives the artist 9 cents in profit. They also reported that customers were purchasing 2.5 million songs a week which translates to a projected annual run rate of 130 million songs a year. The 50 millionth song was "The Path of Thorns" by Sarah McLachlan
.
On April 28, 2004, the iTunes Music Store marked its first anniversary with 70 million songs sold, clear dominance in the paid online music market and a slight profit. The store also offers hundreds of movie trailers and music videos, in an attempt to boost soundtrack sales. In the conference, Steve Jobs
reiterated that a subscription service is still not in the interest of customers and reported that only 5 million of the 100 million songs offered in the Pepsi
giveaway campaign were redeemed, which he blamed on technical problems in Pepsi distribution. According to an Apple Press Release
released on August 10, 2004, the iTunes Music Store is the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs. Also, the iTunes Music Store at that point maintained an over 70 percent market share of legal music downloads.
The emerging monopoly of the store has been criticised by Mike Lang
of Miramax for "effectively strangling the industry". He says that because the music industry has allowed too few content providers, it is now suffering. Lang views the issue as being more of a threat than music piracy.
On July 5, 2005 Apple announced a promotion counting down to half a billion songs
sold.
, the CEO of Apple, announced plans to support both Windows
and non-American users. The Windows version of iTunes and support for the Windows platform from the iTunes Music Store were announced on October 16, 2003, with immediate availability. Beginning in 2004, the service has become available in a number of countries other than the United States:
TV shows were added to the Australian iTunes on June 24 starting with 21 titles from ABC in the US, ABC Australia, the Disney Channel, MTV, and Channel 9. Shows included Summer Heights High
, Scrubs
, The Hills
, Lost
, Hannah Montana
, and Desperate Housewives
.
As of the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo
, Apple had given no new information of the (possible; future) inclusion and expansion of music videos, TV-shows and movies in other European countries. The stores of the UK, Germany and France currently remain the only European Stores with local and/or localized selections of TV-shows, movies and music videos.
-encrypted 128 kbit/s AAC
streams in an mp4
wrapper, using the .m4p extension.
While licenses to the AAC compression and the mp4 file format are readily available, Apple generally has not licensed its proprietary FairPlay encryption scheme to other mobile device manufacturers, so only devices from Apple are able to play the Fairplay-encrypted songs sold at the iTunes Store. The only exceptions were three mobile phones sold by Motorola
in the years 2005–6: the Motorola ROKR E1, the Motorola RAZR V3i, and the Motorola SLVR L7.
Currently the digital booklet
s included with some albums are in PDF. With the present iPod software, these files are not readable on iPods without third party software. However, with the release of their latest firmware update for the iPhone
and iPod Touch
, these can be converted to books and viewed in the iBooks
application.
From May 29, 2007 tracks on the EMI
label were made available in a DRM-less format called iTunes Plus. These files are unprotected and are encoded in the AAC format at 256 kbit/s, twice the bitrate of standard tracks bought through the service. They are labelled as "purchased AAC audio file" (.m4a) rather than "protected AAC audio file" (.m4p) in iTunes and the context menu
obtained by right-clicking the song includes an option to convert to MP3
.
In January 2009, Apple announced that all music would be available in the iTunes Plus format, bringing an end to the sale of music with DRM on iTunes. In April, the sale of protected music ended in the western versions of the store, making all music in the iTunes Store "iTunes Plus". iTunes store users may choose to "upgrade" any of their downloaded iTunes music to iTunes Plus if they wish, but most songs require payment to do so. FairPlay DRM-protected music is still available in the Japanese iTunes store.
In September 2009, Apple introduced the iTunes LP
format (known pre-launch by the code name "Cocktail") which features visual, interactive content alongside album tracks and lyrics.
Apple's FairPlay
digital rights management
(DRM) is integrated into iTunes, which manages songs purchased in the m4p file format from iTunes Store before January 2009. iTunes relies on FairPlay to implement three main restrictions:
There are no restrictions on number of iPods to which a purchased song can be transferred nor the number of times any individual song can be burned to CD.
When Apple initially introduced FairPlay, songs purchased through iTunes had limits of three simultaneous machines and ten CD copies of a playlist. The adjustment to the current limits was implemented with the introduction of iTunes 4.5 in April 2004, presumably as the result of re-negotiations Apple had with major labels.
Apple's DRM technology is breakable. Various programs have been written to remove the FairPlay wrapper and allow the AAC files to be used without technological restriction. More simply, a user can convert protected files to an unprotected format format by using iTunes to burn them to an audio CD and ripping the CD back to iTunes. If the CD is ripped back to iTunes in a lossy format, some audio quality will be lost in this transcoding
. An alternative way of transcoding the files is to record the "Wave Out Mix" using an audio recording program (such as Audacity
or Audio Hijack Pro) while playing the song on iTunes — and then encoding it to a format of the user's choice.
Competitors accused Apple of using iPod, the iTunes Store, and "FairPlay" to establish a vertical monopoly
and a lock-in for iPod users to use the iTunes Store exclusively (and vice versa). This "lock" had two aspects:
In July 2004, RealNetworks
debuted an application named Harmony, which converted files purchased from RealNetworks' RealRhapsody
service into a FairPlay-compatible format that an iPod could play. In response, Apple accused RealNetworks of "adopting the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod." and released a firmware
upgrade that rendered iPods incapable of playing such files. On January 3, 2005, an iTunes Music Store customer sued Apple, alleging the company broke US
antitrust laws by freezing out competitors.
In 2006, a controversy erupted about a French draft law aimed at reinforcing the protection of works of art against "piracy", or illegal copying; some clauses of the law could possibly be used to request Apple to provide information about its FairPlay system to manufacturers of competing players. Apple and associated lobbying groups protested the draft law, going as far as to suggest that it condoned "state-sponsored piracy." Some U.S. commentators claimed that the law was a protectionistic measure against the iPod.
as being revenue maximizing. On April 2, 2007, Apple and the record label EMI
announced that the iTunes Store would begin offering, as an additional purchasing option, tracks from EMI's catalog encoded as 256 kbit/s AAC without FairPlay or any other DRM.
On May 29, 2007, Apple released version 7.2 of its iTunes software, allowing users to purchase DRM-free music and music videos from participating labels. These new files, available through the iTunes Store, have been called iTunes Plus music by Apple. iTunes Plus content was offered at a higher price than the DRM-protected versions of the same content.
In October 2007, iTunes Plus became automatic instead of optional for all iTunes Plus licensed content. In addition, the price of iTunes Plus reverted to the lower DRM price.
Almost immediately after the launch of iTunes Plus, reports surfaced that the DRM-free tracks sold by the iTunes Store contained identifying information about the customer, embedding the purchasing account's full name and e-mail address as metadata
in the file. This information has always been in iTunes downloads both with and without Fairplay DRM.. Privacy groups expressed concerns that this data could be misused if possessions carrying the files were stolen, and potentially wrongly incriminate a user for copyright infringement
.
On January 6, 2009 at the Macworld Expo, Apple announced a significant overhaul of the iTunes Plus catalog with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI offering all their music in iTunes Plus immediately. As of the announcement, 8 million songs were available in Apple's DRM-free format. As of April 2009, all songs became available in the iTunes Plus format, except from the Japanese iTunes store.
, February 1, 2004, Apple launched a promotion with Pepsi
in which they gave away 100 million songs, through tokens on selected soft drink bottle caps. Unfortunately for Apple, Pepsi failed to properly distribute the bottles to major metropolitan areas until only weeks before the promotion ended, despite a one-month extension of the deadline by Apple. The promotion was repeated beginning January 31, 2005, with 200 million songs available, and an iPod Mini
given away every hour.
On July 1, 2004, Apple announced that, starting with the sale of the 95 millionth song, an iPod
would be given away to the buyer of each 100 thousandth song, for a total of 50 iPods. The buyer of the 100 millionth song would receive a PowerBook
, iPod, and US$10,000 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store.
Ten days later, on July 11, Apple announced that 100 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 100 millionth song was titled "Somersault (Dangermouse
Remix)" by Zero 7
, purchased by Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas
. He then received a phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs
, who offered his congratulations, as well as a 40 GB 3rd Generation iPod
laser-engraved with a message of thanks.
Inspired by Pepsi's marketing success with iTunes giveaways, Coca-Cola
partnered with 7-Eleven
to give away a free iTunes song with every 32 USfloz. Slurpee
frozen beverage until July 31, 2005. Songs could be redeemed until August 31, 2005 by entering a code printed on the Slurpee cup into the iTunes Music Store application. Coca-Cola did this in spite of having its own music store, myCokeMusic.com
, that competed with the iTunes Music Store in Europe. myCokeMusic.com ceased business on July 31, 2006.
On July 5, 2005, Apple announced that they were counting down to half a billion songs. The buyer of every 100 thousandth song up to 500 million would receive an iPod Mini
and a 50-song gift card. The grand prize for the person who downloads the 500 millionth song was 10 iPods of their choice, a 10,000-song gift card, 10 50-song gift cards or 4 tickets to the Coldplay
world tour. Twelve days later, on July 17, Apple announced that 500 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 500 millionth song, purchased by Amy Greer of Lafayette
, Indiana
, was "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill
.
On July 28, 2005, Apple and The Gap
announced a promotion to award iTunes music downloads to Gap customers who tried on a pair of Gap jeans. From August 8 to August 31, 2005, each customer who tried on any pair of Gap jeans could receive a free download for a song of their choice from the iTunes Music Store.
On February 7, 2006, Apple announced that they were counting down to the billionth song download and began a promotion similar to the previous 100 million and 500 million countdown. Whoever downloaded the billionth song would receive a 20" iMac, ten 60 GB iPods, and a US$10,000 iTunes Music Card. The billionth song was purchased on February 23, 2006 by Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield
, Michigan
. The purchased song was "Speed of Sound
" as part of Coldplay's
X&Y
album.
On July 25, 2006, Facebook
and iTunes began offering a promotion where members of the Apple Students group would receive a free 25 song sampler each week until September 30 in various music genres. The idea behind the promotion was to get students more familiar and enthusiastic with each service as Autumn classes approached. However in order to prevent abuse of the promotion, the weekly code that Facebook provided stopped working after it was redeemed one million times. In addition, the promotion caused discontent among international students, as the code was only valid in the U.S. iTunes Music Store.
On April 10, 2009, Apple announced that it will be counting down to the billionth app. Apps being the applications for iPod Touch and iPhone. Launching a counter that is constantly running on Good Friday
, Apple starting counting down. Connor Mulcahey, age 13 of Weston, CT, downloaded the billionth app, "Bump
" by Bump Technologies, and will receive a Macbook Pro 17", a 32 GB iPod Touch, a Time Capsule, and a $10,000 Gift Card for the iTunes store.
On February 11, 2010 Apple announced that it would be counting down to 10 billion songs downloaded. A $10,000 gift card was offered as a prize. On February 25, 2010, the 10 Guess Things Happen That Way
by Johnny Cash
purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia.
(only on Mac OS X Leopard and above) and Windows
operating systems and devices, users of other platforms have been able to buy music from the iTunes Store by a variety of methods. iTunes is known to run passably well in Linux
on x86-based computers using the Wine
compatibility layer.
to render these pages on the screen.
Prior to iTunes 9.0, The iTunes Store was delivered using a custom XML
format that describes the position of all of the elements, boxes, album art and all of their properties — including whether a reference link can be dragged out of iTunes and into another document. The App Store portion of the store is still rendered in this fashion.
The store's back-end software uses WebObjects
- Apple's own application server it acquired from NeXT
. Content is uploaded to the iTunes data store using an internal Apple program called iTunes Producer, which automatically encodes and adds metadata to uploaded files.
' record company Apple Records
were in a legal dispute, Apple Corps v. Apple Computer
, with Apple Computer over the name "Apple." On May 8, 2006, a ruling was declared in favor of Apple Computer, but Apple Records said it would appeal the ruling. Despite this, plans were announced by Neil Aspinall in April 2006 to completely remaster and release the entire Beatles catalog on an unspecified online music service, as well as release some previously unheard work by the band. No date was set at that time. It has also been reported that the Beatles' music catalog might initially be appearing on iTunes only, as Apple is reported to be negotiating with Britain's EMI group over an online distribution deal that might be exclusive for a limited time.
During his January 9, 2007 Macworld Keynote address, Apple CEO Steve Jobs used the band's song "Lovely Rita
" to introduce the music-playing capabilities of the company's new iPhone. This was regarded by industry observers as further evidence that the Beatles catalog would be introduced to the iTunes Music Store catalog in the near future. On February 5, 2007, Apple Corps and Apple Inc. announced they had reached a settlement in their legal dispute.
In a related development, Apple announced on August 14, 2007 that the entire solo catalog of John Lennon
would be available on iTunes. The solo catalogs of the other three Beatles, Paul McCartney
, Ringo Starr
, and George Harrison
, are also available on iTunes.
On November 16, 2010, the entire Beatles
catalog was officially made available on the iTunes store.
in Norway
, Sweden
and Denmark
launched a common open letter to Apple regarding the EULA of iTunes through the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon
. The iTunes case is based upon an official complaint filed by The Consumer Council of Norway
on January 25, 2006.
The main allegations were that:
Apple responded July 31, 2006.
On January 22, 2007, German and French consumer groups joined forces with Norway and Finland. Their goal is to create a united European front against iTunes (Germany and France have each had their own negotiation process with iTunes). According to the press statement Apple is in favor of this. The key points in the negotiations were:
magazine complained to the European Commission
about the higher prices in UK for the same songs sold in the EU. Typically 0.99 Euro in EU and 79 pence in the UK. In 2008 the Commission withdrew its investigation after Apple agreed to end the price discrimination.
(currently the world's biggest music corporation) would not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes. Instead, Universal said that it would market music to Apple at will, allowing it to remove its songs from the iTunes service on short notice if the two sides did not agree on pricing or other terms.
On August 9, 2007, UMG announced a plan to sell some songs in MP3
format, without Digital rights management
, through a variety of online services such as Amazon MP3
and the newly created gBox
. While these tracks continue to be available through the iTunes Store, Universal chose to license these songs in DRM-free formats only through other services.
's 2007-08 television schedule would not be available on iTunes. NBC had informed Apple the previous day that it would not be renewing its contract. It was later clarified that this change only applied to series produced by NBC Universal
-owned Universal Media Studios, including Universal-produced shows on other networks such as House
. NBC programs produced by other studios, such as Chuck
(Warner Bros.
) and Journeyman
(20th Century Fox
), would remain available on iTunes.
Apple has publicly asserted that NBC would only renew their contract if Apple agreed to a price increase of US$4.99 per episode, which they did not. NBC disputes that claim, claiming that Apple balked at NBC's request to package shows together and make wholesale pricing more flexible. NBC claims that they never asked to double the wholesale price and insisted that their shows would be sold by the iTunes Store through early December. Other networks who sell their shows via iTunes did not follow suit. On December 1, 2007 NBC shows were pulled from iTunes.
On September 9, 2008, Apple and NBC Universal announced that NBC's TV shows were once again available on the US iTunes Store.
The UK iTunes Store has many shows from NBC
available, though they are distributed by Universal Studios
. The pricing for these seasons are higher than what they were on the US store, an example being, Season 3 of The Office is priced at UK£43.47 (roughly US$72) vs. $52.99 (US Store HD
).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. On February 24, 2010, the store served its 10 billionth song download; this milestone was reached in just under seven years of being online. As of October 4, 2011, the store served its 16 billionth song.
While most downloaded files previously included restrictions on their use, enforced by FairPlay
FairPlay
FairPlay is a digital rights management technology created by Apple Inc., based on technology created by the company Veridisc. FairPlay is built into the QuickTime multimedia software and used by the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, iTunes, and iTunes Store and the App Store. Formerly, all songs in...
, Apple's implementation of digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, iTunes initiated a shift into selling DRM-free music in most countries, marketed as iTunes Plus. On January 6, 2009, Apple announced that DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
had been removed from 80% of the entire music catalog in the U.S. Full iTunes Plus availability was achieved on April 7, 2009 in the U.S., coinciding with the introduction of a three-tiered pricing model; however, television shows and movies are still FairPlay
FairPlay
FairPlay is a digital rights management technology created by Apple Inc., based on technology created by the company Veridisc. FairPlay is built into the QuickTime multimedia software and used by the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, iTunes, and iTunes Store and the App Store. Formerly, all songs in...
-protected.
Pricing model
Since the introduction of the iTunes Store, individual songs were all sold for the same price with no subscription fee (in contrast to most existing online music stores at the time of introduction, which charged a monthly fee for access to their catalog). Music in the store is in the Advanced Audio CodingAdvanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
(AAC) format, which is the MPEG-4-specified successor to MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
. Songs with DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
are encoded at 128 kbit/s. As of the January 2009 Macworld Expo, Apple has announced that all music in iTunes will be available without DRM, and encoded at the higher-quality rate of 256 kbit/s. Previously, this model, known as "iTunes Plus", had been available only for music from EMI and some independent labels. Previews, ninety seconds in length, are available free, prior to buying a song. iTunes had the option between fully loading previews before playing, or simply streaming the preview; the former feature was removed with the release of iTunes 8.
Feature length movies and television episodes are available for purchase. Movies tend to be priced below a DVD
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
of the same film while television episodes are approximately double the cost of a song.
Finally, some games are available for some models of iPods for various prices, but none as expensive as a feature length film. In addition, the iTunes Store now offers Apps, which are applications used for various purposes (games, maps, movie showtimes, etc.) that are compatible with the iPod Touch and iPhone, although some Apps are specifically for the iPhone only. Some Apps cost money (called "Paid Apps") and some are free (called "Free Apps"). Developers can decide which price they want for apps. When someone downloads an App, 70 percent of the purchase goes to the developer(s), and 30 percent goes to Apple.
At the Macworld 2008 keynote, Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, who was Apple's CEO at the time, announced iTunes movie rentals. Movies are available for rent in the iTunes Store on the same day they are released on DVD. They are only viewable for 24 hours after users begin viewing them. This feature is not yet available in all countries but it is available in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Weekly promotions
There is a weekly promotion in which one to three songs are available to download for free to logged-in users. Free downloads are available on Tuesdays, and remain free until the following Tuesday. Some artists choose to have select songs available for no charge. This is not available at all iTunes Stores. Some iTunes television programs have begun the same technique to encourage brand loyalty; although those stay longer. In fact, the iTunes Store used to have a link to "Free TV" on its home page and the TV Shows section's home page which links to a complete listing of free TV shows, however it has disappeared (the page has remained online). Apple still offers free TV episodes; some channels, such as ABC and NBC, have their own pages of "Free Season Premieres".There are usually three types of free songs on the United States iTunes Store: the regular featured free song, the Discovery Download (featuring songs from different genres), and the Canción de la Semana (Latino free single of the week). Most recently, iTunes has been weekly offering free music videos.
Availability
To buy files through the store, a user must install the proprietary digital media player iTunesITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
to access the store. This software is available only for certain versions of the Macintosh or Windows operating systems.
A user must also pay with an iTunes gift card
Gift card
A gift card is a restricted monetary equivalent or scrip that is issued byretailers or banks to be used as an alternative to a non-monetary gift....
or a credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
with a billing address in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, or the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Apple also offers other payment methods (like Paypal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
), which differ from country to country. Residents in other countries can only buy a gift card from a merchant or download free podcasts and previews.
iTunes Store for iOS
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
brought the introduction of the iTunes Music Store. This version of the iTunes Store allows owners of the iPod Touch and iPhone to purchase music and download podcasts directly on the portable music device. Originally to access the store the user had to be connected to a Wi-Fi network in order to enter the store, hence its original name: the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. However, at Macworld 2009, Apple issued a software update which automatically allowed 3G and EDGE users to access the store's full functionality for files smaller than 10 MB. The 3.0 update added the ability to download movies, TV shows, audiobooks, iTunes U, and ringtones on the devices. However, on 18 February 2010, Apple increased the 10MB limit to 20MB.
Customer support
Apple provides customer supportTechnical support
Technical support or tech support refers to a range of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods...
for the iTunes Store over the phone through AppleCare
AppleCare
AppleCare is a service and support plan offered by Apple Inc. that extends the standard Apple warranty and phone support for its products to two years for iPods, iPads, and iPhones or three years for Macs.-AppleCare Protection Plan:...
; Timothy Noah
Timothy Noah
Timothy Robert Noah is an American journalist. He is a senior editor of The New Republic, where he writes the TRB column and a political blog...
of Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
has also found a customer service
Technical support
Technical support or tech support refers to a range of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods...
line. Most customer service inquiries are handled online, via Report a Problem link in iTunes Application.
Music
The store began after Apple signed deals with the five major record labels at the time, EMIEMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, Universal
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
, Warner
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
, Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
, and BMG (the last two would later merge to form Sony BMG
Sony BMG Music Entertainment
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a recorded music company, which was a 50–50 joint venture between the Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann AG...
- which was later turned back into Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
, with BMG becoming defunct as of October 8, 2008). Music from more than 2,000 independent labels
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
were added later, the first from The Orchard
The Orchard (music label)
The Orchard is a New York City based digital distribution and entertainment services company that works with independent artists and labels, and content providers...
on June 24, 2003.
The store has more than 18,000,000 songs, including exclusive tracks from numerous artists. Not all artists are available on iTunes, including some popular ones such as AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
or Garth Brooks.
New songs are added to the iTunes catalog every day, while the iTunes Store is updated each Tuesday. Apple also releases a 'Single of the Week' in both English and sometimes Spanish and usually a 'Discovery Download' on Tuesdays, which are available for free for one week.
Downloaded songs come with song information (name, artist, album) already filled out, though iTunes provides a free service by Gracenote
Gracenote
Gracenote, Inc., formerly called CDDB , is a company that maintains and licenses an Internet-accessible database containing information about the contents of audio compact discs and vinyl records. It provides software and metadata to businesses that enable their customers to manage and search...
to do this for songs not purchased from the store, although they must be imported with iTunes. Songs that have an entry in the iTunes Store also come with album artwork (Artwork is embedded in the metadata). As of the release of iTunes 7, the artwork can be obtained for songs not purchased from the store for free if the user has an iTunes Store account. Purchased songs do not come with lyrics already typed in to the application's window for them; nor does iTunes provide a service for acquiring the missing lyrics. However, several third-party applications exist to locate and automatically add lyrics to the user's music.
"Album Only" songs
Some songs are available from the store by "Album Only", meaning the song can only be acquired through the purchase of the entire album, whereas most songs can be downloaded separately from the album they belong to. Most songs above 10 minutes in length are automatically album-only songs. Soundtracks also often have many Album Only tracks. Movie soundtracks normally include songs owned by many different labels, making licensing more complex. For example, Forrest Gump: The SoundtrackForrest Gump (soundtrack)
Forrest Gump is the soundtrack album based on the Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning film, Forrest Gump, and contains music from many well-known artists.-Charts:...
includes songs from Peacock Records
Peacock Records
Peacock Records was a record label started in 1949 by Don D. Robey in Houston, Texas."Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton was a bit hit for Peacock in 1953. Other significant rhythm & blues artists on Peacock were Marie Adams, James Booker, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Little Richard, Memphis Slim, and...
, Argo Records
Argo Records
Argo Records was started in December of 1955 to accommodate some of the rapidly growing recording activity at Chess Records. Originally the label was called Marterry, but bandleader Ralph Marterie objected, and within a couple of months the imprint was renamed Argo.Initially, Argo offered a...
& Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, among many others. Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits (Red Hot Chili Peppers album)
Greatest Hits is the second compilation album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was released on November 18, 2003 by Warner Bros. Records. Aside from their cover of "Higher Ground", all songs on the compilation are from their tenure on Warner Bros...
by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
has only one song, "Higher Ground", that is not available for download on a per song basis, whilst "Circus" (Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
2008 album) has two songs that are only available for album download only which are "Rock Me In" and "Phonography".
Sub-divisions
When entering the U.S. music store, there are multiple sub-divided stores that one can go into. These stores are either found under ‘More In Music,’ ‘Genres,’ ‘Pre-Orders,’ ‘Celebrity Playlists’ and ‘Free Downloads.’ Within ‘More In Music,’ one can enter various stores such as Starbucks EntertainmentStarbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
and iTunes Essentials. iTunes Essentials contains groupings of music based upon the artist of the music (Artist Essentials), the genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
or history of the music (Genres and History), or any other similarities (My Groove). Each grouping of music is essentially a pre-made playlist
Playlist
In its most general form, a playlist is simply a list of songs. They can be played in sequential or shuffled order. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of radio broadcasting and personal computers.-In radio:...
. The songs in the playlist are all listed in order of their importance, starting with the artist's most well-known song. These playlists usually contain either 45 or 75 songs equally distributed in three sections: The Basics (the biggest, best, and most important songs), Next Steps (usually composed of popular songs just beyond the hits) and Deep Cuts (under-appreciated songs). Occasionally, specific Artist Essentials do not have a Deep Cuts section. This usually depends on how many releases the artist has completed over the years. Within ‘Genres,’ one can enter music stores that only have one genre. These genres include alternative, blues, children's music
Children's music
Children's music is used here to refer to music composed and performed for children by adults. In European influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment...
, Christian
Christian music
Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely across the world....
& gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
(this includes comedy rock
Comedy rock
Comedy rock is rock music mixed with comedy, often satire and parody.-History:Early USA examples include Stan Freberg, who lampooned artists such as Elvis Presley, Harry Belafonte and The Platters, and Sheb Wooley whose "Purple People Eater" reached No...
and stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
), country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
, dance
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
, electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, hip-hop/rap, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, Latino
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, R&B/soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, singer–songwriter
Singer–songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
, soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
, vocal
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
, and world
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. There are a total of 20 genres in the U.S. music store. ‘Pre-Orders’ lists albums that one can pre-order before the album is released. ‘Celebrity Playlists’ contains lists of songs chosen and described by celebrities. ‘Free Downloads’ are songs that subscribed iTunes Store users can obtain for free.
On November 1, 2006, Apple created a category for Latino and Hispanic content, “iTunes Latino”. Telemundo and Mun2 made some of their popular programs available for purchase, becoming the first Hispanic television content in the store. It offers music, music videos, audiobooks, podcasts and television shows in Spanish in a single concentrated area. The brief descriptions given to the content is in Spanish as well as several sub-categories. Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
ian Flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
Metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Breed 77
Breed 77
Breed 77 is a British band from the overseas territory of Gibraltar whose music is a fusion of alternative metal and flamenco.-Origin:Breed 77 comes from the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Old Gibraltarian school friends, Paul Isola, Danny Felice, and Stuart Cavilla met up in London and...
, released an exclusive album called Un Encuentro
Un Encuentro
Un Encuentro is an album by Gibraltarian Flamenco metal quintet Breed 77. It was released exclusively as a digital download on iTunes through J. Albert Productions in early 2007, to coincide with the launch of "iTunes Latino"...
to coincide with the launch of “iTunes Latino”. It features 11 songs, all from previous albums, but all sung in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
.
Song censorship
iTunes has a policy of censoring profanityProfanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
in its song titles. This has resulted in a Scunthorpe glitch
Scunthorpe Problem
The Scunthorpe problem occurs when a spam filter or search engine blocks e-mails or search results because their text contains a string of letters that are shared with an obscene word...
, by which inoffensive titles are censored due to a coincidental string of letters.
If the song has an explicit label, it will be marked "explicit" next to the song title. If a song is marked "explicit" it is unavailable for purchase if "restrict explicit content" is checked under the parental controls preference. Often there will be a "clean" mark next to the title of some songs, meaning the lyrics have been censored, and is available to purchase on all accounts. Generally if a song is marked "clean" there is an explicit version available as well.
Podcasts
The iTunes Store has over 150,000 podcasts available to subscribe. Once a podcast has been subscribed to, iTunes will automatically download new episodes to that person's iTunes library. They are available for free and are of various ratings. Devices with iOS 4.2 onwards allows the download of podcasts automatically in your device.Audiobooks
The iTunes Store also includes over 20,000 hours of audiobooks, encoded at 32 kbit/s (22.050-24.000 kHz, mono) and 64 kbit/s (22.050 kHz, stereo). Ninety-second previews are offered for every book. These books are provided by Audible.comAudible.com
Audible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers....
. This is the same format available if the user signs up directly with Audible.com and chose the "iPod" format. The main difference is that it is unnecessary to sign up for a subscription to get audiobooks as is the case with Audible. A small discount is provided through buying audiobooks through the iTunes Store, but on a selective basis by Apple in comparison to an "always on member discount" if one has an Audible subscription.
The "Audiobooks" category also includes radio shows and all other audio-only programs, except podcasts.
Video
In October 2005, Apple announced the latest iPod would be capable of playing video files, which would be sold online through the iTunes Store in the U.S. These videos included 2,000 music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s and episodes of popular television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
programs. Apple made a deal with Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
to be the first supplier of TV shows. The first shows available included episodes of Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
and Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
with each episode becoming available the day after it originally aired on broadcast TV. Several short animated films by Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
are available.
The selling of videos on iTunes sparked considerable debate as to whether there was a paying audience for programming available for free on TV. As MP3 Newswire pointed out, users are not so much paying for the TV programs themselves. Instead they are really paying for a service that offers the convenience of someone else digitizing free broadcast episodes for them for their portable device, each episode in commercial-free form, and a convenient place to select and download individual shows. Through an updated version of QuickTime Pro
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
, users can create their own videos for the iPod, including digitized versions of programs recorded on their VCR if they wish to take the time and effort to save the cost.
With the launch of iTunes 8, many TV shows, such as The Office and Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
, have begun offering their programing in High Definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
(HD). The High Definition video on the iTunes Store is in 1280x720 resolution rather than the better known 1920x1080 Full HD
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
on Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
discs.
In addition to the launch of high definition TV shows, iTunes 8 allowed for the rental of movies through the iTunes Store. The playing of movie rentals must begin within 30 days of purchase and must be completed within 24 hours of having been started.
In March 2009, Apple announced that iTunes customers can purchase and rent selected movie titles in HD from their computers. Previously, HD movie rentals were only available for purchase and playback on the Apple TV. HD movies available for purchase are priced at $19.99, introduced with titles such as Quantum of Solace and Twilight
Twilight (2008 film)
Twilight is a 2008 American romantic vampire film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series...
.
iTunes U
iTunes U was announced at Cupertino, California on May 30, 2007. The service was created to manage, distribute, and control access to educational audio and video content and PDF files for students within a college or university as well as the broader Internet. The member institutions are given their own iTunes U site that makes use of Apple’s iTunes Store infrastructure. The online service is without cost to those uploading or downloading material. Content includes course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights and campus tours provided by qualifying two- and four-year accredited, degree-granting, public or private colleges and universities in the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.An advantage iTunes U has over traditional podcasting tools is that access to content can be restricted because of the use of the iTunes infrastructure end-to-end. Authentication is handled by the member college or university, who prompts a visitor for information (like an account and password specific to that institution) and then passes a certain token on to the iTunes U web site. That token contains (indicates) the access level for that visitor. An example might be a class podcast that can only be accessed by students enrolled in the class.
iTunes U has material from myriad places including colleges and universities. There are over 350,000 files available to download. Individual universities can be visited through the Universities & Colleges section, and other institutions can be visited through the "Beyond Campus" section.
iTunes U functions much like Podcasts in that users can either download individual streams or subscribe to a stream so that iTunes will automatically download it.
Since making changes to individual iTunes U sites may be difficult to users not well-versed in XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
tools (i.e. XQuery
XQuery
- Features :XQuery provides the means to extract and manipulate data from XML documents or any data source that can be viewed as XML, such as relational databases or office documents....
), Apple has created the Woolamaloo Automator to aid users in the editing of sites. The Woolamaloo Automator makes it easy for non-programmers to use the iTunes U web services. By using the workflow tool on Apple’s desktop, Automator, the Woolamaloo actions can not only be configured but can then be combined to help with any routine iTunes U administrative tasks. The Woolamaloo Automator has become popular because of its easy design.
iPod games
On September 12, 2006, the iTunes Store began to offer additional games for purchase with the launch of iTunes 7, compatible with the iPod ClassicIPod classic
The iPod Classic is a portable media player marketed by Apple Inc...
or iPod Nano
IPod nano
iPod Nano is a digital media player designed and marketed by Apple Inc.. The first generation of iPod Nano was introduced on September 7, 2005 as a replacement for iPod Mini. It uses flash memory for storage. iPod Nano has gone through six models, or generations, since its introduction...
with video playback. Launch titles included: Bejeweled
Bejeweled
Bejeweled is a puzzle game by PopCap Games, first developed for browsers in 2001. Three follow-ups to this game have been released. More than 75 million copies of Bejeweled have been sold, and the game has been downloaded more than 500 million times....
, Cubis, Mini Golf, Mahjong
Mahjong solitaire
Mahjong solitaire is a solitaire matching game that uses a set of Mahjong tiles rather than cards. It is also known as Shanghai solitaire, electronic or computerized mahjong, MahJong solitaire, solitaire Mahjong and, erroneously, as Mahjong...
, Pac-Man
Pac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
, Texas Hold 'Em
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
, Vortex
Vortex (iPod game)
Vortex is an iPod game created by Apple Inc. It is a Breakout clone that has a "looking down perspective" and has bricks arranged in a circular layout.-History:...
, and Zuma. Though they are downloaded through iTunes, the games cannot be played within the application itself; they can only be played on an iPod Classic or iPod Nano.
App Store
With the launch of iPhone 3G and the 2.0 iOS firmware for iPod Touch and iPhone owners, the App Store allows people to download applications through the iTunes desktop software or the App Store on their iPhones. As of October 20, 2010, there are over 300,000 third-party applications available. The applications can only be run on iPhones, iPod Touch or iPads. Each application is also protected with iTunes FairPlay DRM. Developers of these applications receive 70 percent of the income and free applications are distributed without charge to the developer.iBookstore
As with the launch of the App Store on both the iOS as a standalone application and in iTunes as a section of the iTunes store, the iBookstore is likely to be launched on both platforms in a similar fashion, with the desktop software being used to store and sync iBooksIBooks
iBooks is an e-book application by Apple Inc. It was announced in conjunction with the iPad on January 27, 2010, and was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch in mid-2010, as part of the iOS 4 update. At that time, it was described by Apple as being available only in the United States...
purchases exclusively with the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
. The iPhone OS software update on 21 June 2010 also allowed iPhone and iPod touch customers in America to buy iBooks. Other countries are still waiting for the release of the iBookstore. There has been no word from Apple on when this will occur.
Reception
In January 2004 at the Macworld Conference & Expo
Macworld Conference & Expo
Produced by Boston-based IDG World Expo, Macworld | iWorld is a trade-show with conference tracks dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform. It is held annually in the United States, usually during the second week of January...
in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, Steve Jobs announced (Sellers, 2004) that an unnamed person had purchased US$29,500 worth of music. On March 15, 2004, Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded 50 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. A song sold on iTunes gives the artist 9 cents in profit. They also reported that customers were purchasing 2.5 million songs a week which translates to a projected annual run rate of 130 million songs a year. The 50 millionth song was "The Path of Thorns" by Sarah McLachlan
Sarah McLachlan
Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four...
.
On April 28, 2004, the iTunes Music Store marked its first anniversary with 70 million songs sold, clear dominance in the paid online music market and a slight profit. The store also offers hundreds of movie trailers and music videos, in an attempt to boost soundtrack sales. In the conference, Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
reiterated that a subscription service is still not in the interest of customers and reported that only 5 million of the 100 million songs offered in the Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
giveaway campaign were redeemed, which he blamed on technical problems in Pepsi distribution. According to an Apple Press Release
News release
A press release, news release, media release, press statement or video release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy...
released on August 10, 2004, the iTunes Music Store is the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs. Also, the iTunes Music Store at that point maintained an over 70 percent market share of legal music downloads.
The emerging monopoly of the store has been criticised by Mike Lang
Mike Lang
Mike Lang is the current Chief Executive Officer of Miramax Films.Lang was a former News Corp. executive. In that job he had a hand in acquiring MySpace and starting up Hulu. Lang was a consultant on the deal for Filmyard Holdings to purchase Miramax Films from Walt Disney Company. At closing he...
of Miramax for "effectively strangling the industry". He says that because the music industry has allowed too few content providers, it is now suffering. Lang views the issue as being more of a threat than music piracy.
Music
- 100 million songs sold: Summer, 2004
-
- (Kevin Britten of HaysHays, KansasHays is a city in and the county seat of Ellis County, Kansas, United States. The largest city in northwestern Kansas, it is the economic and cultural center of the region. It is also a college town, home to Fort Hays State University...
, KansasKansasKansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, bought the 100 millionth song, and the twenty-year-old was given a call from Steve Jobs congratulating him.)- 125 million songs sold: September 1, 2004
- 150 million songs sold: October 14, 2004
- 200 million songs sold: December 16, 2004
- (Ryan Alekman of BelchertownBelchertown, MassachusettsAs of the census of 2000, there were 12,968 people, 4,886 households, and 3,517 families residing in the town. The population density was 245.9 people per square mile . There were 5,050 housing units at an average density of 95.8 per square mile...
, MassachusettsMassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, USAUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, bought the 200 millionth song, which was one of the tracks on U2U2U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
's digital box set The Complete U2The Complete U2-Live from Boston 1981:Live from Boston 1981 is a live album recorded during U2's Boy Tour at Boston's Paradise Rock Club on . Some of the tracks on this album have been originally released on other singles previous to the release of this album....
.)- 250 million songs sold: January 24, 2005
- 300 million songs sold: March 2, 2005
- 400 million songs sold: May 10, 2005
- (Kevin Britten of Hays
On July 5, 2005 Apple announced a promotion counting down to half a billion songs
sold.
- 500 million songs sold: July 18, 2005
-
- (Amy Greer of LafayetteLafayette, IndianaLafayette is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 67,140. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, which has a large impact on...
, IndianaIndianaIndiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, USAUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, bought the 500 millionth song, "Mississippi GirlMississippi Girl"Mississippi Girl" is a 2005 song recorded by country music singer Faith Hill and the lead single from her album Fireflies. A Number One single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts in late 2005, it was her first Number One on the country music charts since 2000's "The Way You Love Me".-About...
" by Faith HillFaith HillFaith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
.)- 850 million songs sold: January 10, 2006
- 1 billion songs sold: February 23, 2006
- (Alex Ostrovsky of West BloomfieldWest Bloomfield Township, MichiganWest Bloomfield Charter Township is an affluent charter township in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan, within the Detroit metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the township had a population of 64,690. As of 2008, West Bloomfield Township was ranked the 8th highest income city in the...
, MichiganMichiganMichigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, bought the billionth song, "Speed of SoundSpeed of Sound (song)"Speed of Sound" is a song by English alternative rock band Coldplay. It was written by all members of the band for their third album, X&Y. Built around a piano riff, the song builds into a huge, synthesizer-heavy chorus...
" by ColdplayColdplayColdplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
. He later got a call from Steve Jobs with the good news that the sixteen-year-old was getting ten iPods, an iMac, a $10,000 music gift certificate, and a scholarship established in his name at the Juilliard School.)- 1.5 billion songs sold: September 12, 2006
- 2 billion songs sold: January 10, 2007
- 2.5 billion songs sold: April 9, 2007
- 3 billion songs sold: July 31, 2007
- 4 billion songs sold: January 15, 2008
- 5 billion songs sold: June 19, 2008
- 6 billion songs sold: January 6, 2009
- 8 billion songs sold: July 21, 2009
- 8.6 billion songs sold: September 9, 2009
- 10 billion songs sold: February 24, 2010
- Louie Sulcer (SUL'-sir) of Woodstock, GeorgiaWoodstock, GeorgiaWoodstock is a city in Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. The population was 23,896 at the 2010 census.Originally a stop on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Woodstock is now considered part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
downloaded Guess Things Happen That WayGuess Things Happen That Way"Guess Things Happen That Way" is a 1958 cross over single by Johnny Cash, which was written by Jack Clement. The single, a song about "a man struggling .....
by Johnny CashJohnny CashJohn R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
. At 71 years old, he is the oldest milestone winner. He received a call from Steve JobsSteve JobsSteven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
and a $10,000 iTunes gift card.
- (Amy Greer of Lafayette
Video
- 1 million videos sold: October 31, 2005
- 3+ million videos sold: December 6, 2005
- 8 million videos sold: January 10, 2006
- 15 million videos sold: February 23, 2006
- 45 million videos sold: September 12, 2006
- 50 million television episodes sold: January 10, 2007
- 1.3 million feature-length films sold: January 10, 2007
- 2 million feature-length films sold: July 31, 2007
- 200 million television episodes sold: October 16, 2008
- 1+ million HD episodes sold: October 16, 2008
Applications
- 10 million apps downloaded: July 14, 2008
- 100 million apps downloaded: September 9, 2008
- 200 million apps downloaded: October 22, 2008
- 300 million apps downloaded: December 5, 2008
- 500 million apps downloaded: January 16, 2009
- 800 million apps downloaded: March 17, 2009
- 1 billion apps downloaded: April 23, 2009
- 1.5 billion apps downloaded: July 14, 2009
- 1.8 billion apps downloaded: September 9, 2009
- 2 billion apps downloaded: September 28, 2009
- 3 billion apps downloaded: January 5, 2010
- 7 billion apps downloaded: October 20, 2010
- 10 billion apps downloaded: January 22, 2011
- 15 billion apps downloaded: July 7, 2011
Market share
- Steve Jobs announced in his "It's Showtime" keynote that Apple had 88% of the legal U.S. music download market on September 12, 2006.
- Apple announced that the iTunes Store had sold more than two million movies, making it the world’s most popular online movie store on April 11, 2007.
- Apple announced that iTunes Store surpassed Best BuyBest BuyBest Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
to become the second biggest music seller in the USA behind Wal-MartWal-MartWal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
on February 26, 2008 and eventually became number one on April 3, 2008.
Internationalization
Originally only Mac OS X users who had credit cards with a U.S. billing address could buy songs with the service, but Steve JobsSteve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, the CEO of Apple, announced plans to support both Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and non-American users. The Windows version of iTunes and support for the Windows platform from the iTunes Music Store were announced on October 16, 2003, with immediate availability. Beginning in 2004, the service has become available in a number of countries other than the United States:
- On 15 June 2004, the iTunes Music Store was launched in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. According to an Apple Press Release, the European iTunes Music Stores sold a combined total of 800,000 songs in one week, with 450,000 of those songs sold in the UK. - On 26 October 2004 nine countries were added to the iTunes Music Store in a large EUEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
store expansion: AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, LuxembourgLuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, the NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, and SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. This extended availability to all countries that were then in the EurozoneEurozoneThe eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...
except for the Republic of IrelandRepublic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, where the iTMS became available on 6 January 2005. These countries also pay €0.99 for songs, and have a shared catalogue/database system. The Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek stores have been localized. Some of these stores also currently (still) lack music videos, movies and TV series (such as the Swedish, Portuguese, Belgian, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Irish, Greek, Austrian, Swiss, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian iTunes Stores). The French, German, American, and British stores are localized for their respective countries and have different catalogs including but not limited to Music, Music videos, Movies, TV-Series and iPhone Apps. - On 3 December 2004 the British Office of Fair TradingOffice of Fair TradingThe Office of Fair Trading is a not-for-profit and non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforces both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the UK's economic regulator...
referred the iTunes Music Store to the European CommissionEuropean CommissionThe European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
because it prevents consumers in one EU country from buying music from stores in other EU countries, in violation of EU free-trade legislation; the immediate cause of the referral was because the €0.99 price charged in the EurozoneEurozoneThe eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...
equates to UK£0.68 in sterling, rather than the UK£0.79 actually charged there. - The iTunes Music Store was launched in CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on December 3, 2004. - On 10 May 2005, the iTunes Music Store opened for SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, after about two weeks of speculation about these countries (and AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
) receiving the store. - Apple officially launched the iTunes Music Store in JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on 4 August 2005, with 1 million songs available. In the next four days the store had sold one million songs – the pace faster than that of the U.S. store. In addition to a long delay, Apple failed to have one set price for singles. Pundits speculated that this may have indicated the introduction of new price structure to the rest of the stores in future, in favor of record labels who would like to see higher prices for new songs. This extension to other countries was announced in January 2009. - The iTunes Music Store was launched in AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on 25 October 2005. The release of video-capable iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
s also saw the store launch with music videos and short films by PixarPixarPixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
. iTunes Gift Cards (as they are now known) are now also available in many more stores such as JB Hi-FiJB Hi-FiJB Hi-Fi is an Australian CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc, video game and consumer electronics chain store.-History:JB Hi-Fi was established in Melbourne suburb of Keilor East by John Barbuto in 1974...
, David JonesDavid Jones LimitedDavid Jones Limited , colloquially known as DJs, is a high-end Australian department store chain.David Jones was founded in 1838 by David Jones, a Welsh immigrant, and is claimed to be the oldest continuously operating department store in the world still trading under its original name. It...
, and the WoolworthsWoolworths LimitedWoolworths Limited is a major Australian company with extensive retail interest throughout Australia and New Zealand. It is the:* largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand by market capitalisation and sales...
chain of stores. Access was inadvertently given to some people in New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, too. Failed negotiations with the Sony BMG label meant that none of that label's artists were available at the time of launch; they were later added on January 17, 2006. On June 23, 2008, television shows were added to the Australian iTunes Store, with a combination of both Australian and international programming. - On November 1, 2006, the store started offering a range of LatinoLatinoThe demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
content including television shows and music for its Hispanic American, MexicanMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Puerto RicanPuerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
clients.
- The iTunes Store (along with a local Apple Online Store) was officially launched in New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
on December 6, 2006, although New Zealand users had briefly been able to buy from the Australian store when it first opened until that loophole was closed. - Many users from central and south EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
are still waiting for their version of iTunes. - The newly developed iTunes Movie Rentals will be released outside the U.S. within a year from July 2008.
- On 4 June 2008 the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
became the first countries to be able to buy and rent films on the iTunes Store at UK£2.49 per rental and UK£6.99 to buy and CA$Canadian dollarThe Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
3.49 and CA$14.99 respectively. - On the August 14, 2008, Australia and New Zealand became the 4th and 5th countries, respectively, to have movies available on iTunes from major movie companies Walt Disney and Lions Gate InternationalLions Gate EntertainmentLions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
. 20th Century Fox20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, Sony Pictures, ParamountParamount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, and other major motion picture companies are scheduled to be released.
TV shows were added to the Australian iTunes on June 24 starting with 21 titles from ABC in the US, ABC Australia, the Disney Channel, MTV, and Channel 9. Shows included Summer Heights High
Summer Heights High
Summer Heights High is a Logie Award-winning Australian television mockumentary series written by and starring Chris Lilley. It is a parody of high-school life epitomised by its three protagonists: effeminate and megalomaniacal "Director of Performing Arts" Mr G; self-absorbed, privileged teenager...
, Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
, The Hills
The Hills
The Hills is a reality television series which originally aired on MTV from May 31, 2006 until July 13, 2010. The show uses a reality television format, following the personal lives of several young adults living in Los Angeles, California, but tends towards a narrative format more commonly found...
, Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
, Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana is an American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real...
, and Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
.
- On August 4, 2009, MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
became the first Latin American country (and the first developing countryDeveloping countryA developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...
) to have a music store, pricing songs for MX$Mexican pesoThe peso is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 15th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use its sign, "$". The Mexican peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world, the third most traded in the Americas, and by far the most...
9, MX$12 or MX$15 each and music videos for MX$18 or MX$24. Gift cards were also launched, being available for MX$200, MX$300, and MX$600. The SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
used on the Mexican store has been modified to Mexican SpanishMexican SpanishMexican Spanish is a version of the Spanish language, as spoken in Mexico and in various places of Canada and the United States of America, where there are communities of Mexican origin....
. As of 9 November 2010, movie rentals and purchases were launched on iTunes Mexico with rentals at MX$10, MX$25 & MX$40 and purchases at MX$25 (short films), MX$35 (HD short films), MX$50, MX$80, MX$100 or MX$150. - On April 30, Apple launched their film store in the Republic of Ireland and France.
As of the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo
Macworld Conference & Expo
Produced by Boston-based IDG World Expo, Macworld | iWorld is a trade-show with conference tracks dedicated to the Apple Macintosh platform. It is held annually in the United States, usually during the second week of January...
, Apple had given no new information of the (possible; future) inclusion and expansion of music videos, TV-shows and movies in other European countries. The stores of the UK, Germany and France currently remain the only European Stores with local and/or localized selections of TV-shows, movies and music videos.
- On 29 September 2011, the iTunes Store launched, with music availability only, in the 12 remaining EU members that had yet to receive their own stores—namely Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Current prices: Songs
| Region | min. price | max. price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| local | USD | local | USD | |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
USD 0.69 | (0.69) | USD 1.29 | (1.29) |
| Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of... |
MXN 9 | (0.71) | MXN 15 | (1.19) |
| Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
CAD Canadian dollar The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies... 0.69 |
(0.67) | CAD 1.29 | (1.25) |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
GBP 0.59 | (0.91) | GBP 0.99 | (1.53) |
| Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
CHF Swiss franc The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there... 1.60 |
(1.53) | CHF 2.20 | (2.11) |
| Eurozone Eurozone The eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender... |
EUR 0.69 | (0.92) | EUR 1.29 | (1.72) |
| Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
DKK 8 | (1.52) | DKK 10 | (1.90) |
| Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
NOK Norwegian krone The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"... 8 |
(1.32) | NOK 10 | (1.66) |
| Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
SEK Swedish krona The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value... 9 |
(1.25) | SEK 12 | (1.67) |
| Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
AUD Aud Aud might refer to*Australian dollar *Ambedkar University, Delhi *American University in Dubai *Doctor of Audiology *Auðr, the son of Nótt and Naglfari in Norse mythology... 1.19 |
(1.28) | AUD 2.19 | (2.35) |
| New Zealand New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... |
NZD1.79 | (1.29) | NZD 2.39 | (1.72) |
| Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
JPY 150 | (1.71) | JPY 200 | (2.28) |
Available file formats / History thereof
Originally, songs were encoded using FairPlayFairPlay
FairPlay is a digital rights management technology created by Apple Inc., based on technology created by the company Veridisc. FairPlay is built into the QuickTime multimedia software and used by the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, iTunes, and iTunes Store and the App Store. Formerly, all songs in...
-encrypted 128 kbit/s AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
streams in an mp4
MPEG-4 Part 14
MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a multimedia container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4. It is most commonly used to store digital video and digital audio streams, especially those defined by MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images...
wrapper, using the .m4p extension.
While licenses to the AAC compression and the mp4 file format are readily available, Apple generally has not licensed its proprietary FairPlay encryption scheme to other mobile device manufacturers, so only devices from Apple are able to play the Fairplay-encrypted songs sold at the iTunes Store. The only exceptions were three mobile phones sold by Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
in the years 2005–6: the Motorola ROKR E1, the Motorola RAZR V3i, and the Motorola SLVR L7.
Currently the digital booklet
Digital booklet
Digital booklets are the digital equivalent of liner notes that often accompany digital music purchases. They are most commonly distributed in Portable Document Format. One well-known distributor of digital booklets with digital purchases is the iTunes Store; the first instance of this on the...
s included with some albums are in PDF. With the present iPod software, these files are not readable on iPods without third party software. However, with the release of their latest firmware update for the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
, these can be converted to books and viewed in the iBooks
IBooks
iBooks is an e-book application by Apple Inc. It was announced in conjunction with the iPad on January 27, 2010, and was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch in mid-2010, as part of the iOS 4 update. At that time, it was described by Apple as being available only in the United States...
application.
From May 29, 2007 tracks on the EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
label were made available in a DRM-less format called iTunes Plus. These files are unprotected and are encoded in the AAC format at 256 kbit/s, twice the bitrate of standard tracks bought through the service. They are labelled as "purchased AAC audio file" (.m4a) rather than "protected AAC audio file" (.m4p) in iTunes and the context menu
Context menu
A context menu is a menu in a graphical user interface that appears upon user interaction, such as a right mouse click or middle click mouse operation...
obtained by right-clicking the song includes an option to convert to MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
.
In January 2009, Apple announced that all music would be available in the iTunes Plus format, bringing an end to the sale of music with DRM on iTunes. In April, the sale of protected music ended in the western versions of the store, making all music in the iTunes Store "iTunes Plus". iTunes store users may choose to "upgrade" any of their downloaded iTunes music to iTunes Plus if they wish, but most songs require payment to do so. FairPlay DRM-protected music is still available in the Japanese iTunes store.
In September 2009, Apple introduced the iTunes LP
ITunes LP
iTunes LP is a format for interactive album artwork introduced by Apple Inc. on the 9 September 2009. It is similar to the CMX format being developed by the 4 major record labels, and operates within the iTunes 9 software, allowing the user to view multimedia elements alongside the music...
format (known pre-launch by the code name "Cocktail") which features visual, interactive content alongside album tracks and lyrics.
Digital rights management
FairPlay
FairPlay is a digital rights management technology created by Apple Inc., based on technology created by the company Veridisc. FairPlay is built into the QuickTime multimedia software and used by the iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV, iTunes, and iTunes Store and the App Store. Formerly, all songs in...
digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
(DRM) is integrated into iTunes, which manages songs purchased in the m4p file format from iTunes Store before January 2009. iTunes relies on FairPlay to implement three main restrictions:
- Users can make a maximum of seven CD copies of any particular playlist containing songs in the m4p file format purchased from the iTunes Store.
- Users can access their purchased songs in the m4p file format on a maximum of five computers.
- Songs in the m4p file format can only be played on a computer with iTunes or an iPod; other MP3 devices do not support FairPlay encoded tracks.
There are no restrictions on number of iPods to which a purchased song can be transferred nor the number of times any individual song can be burned to CD.
When Apple initially introduced FairPlay, songs purchased through iTunes had limits of three simultaneous machines and ten CD copies of a playlist. The adjustment to the current limits was implemented with the introduction of iTunes 4.5 in April 2004, presumably as the result of re-negotiations Apple had with major labels.
Apple's DRM technology is breakable. Various programs have been written to remove the FairPlay wrapper and allow the AAC files to be used without technological restriction. More simply, a user can convert protected files to an unprotected format format by using iTunes to burn them to an audio CD and ripping the CD back to iTunes. If the CD is ripped back to iTunes in a lossy format, some audio quality will be lost in this transcoding
Transcode
Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital data conversion of one encoding to another, such as for movie data files or audio files. This is usually done in cases where a target device does not support the format or has limited storage capacity that mandates a reduced file size, or to convert...
. An alternative way of transcoding the files is to record the "Wave Out Mix" using an audio recording program (such as Audacity
Audacity
Audacity is a free software, cross-platform digital audio editor and recording application. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and BSD.Audacity was created by Dominic Mazzoni while he was a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University...
or Audio Hijack Pro) while playing the song on iTunes — and then encoding it to a format of the user's choice.
Competitors accused Apple of using iPod, the iTunes Store, and "FairPlay" to establish a vertical monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
and a lock-in for iPod users to use the iTunes Store exclusively (and vice versa). This "lock" had two aspects:
- Apple has maintained tight control of its FairPlay encryption. Other online music stores cannot sell music files encoded with FairPlay, and competing devices from companies such as Creative LabsCreative TechnologyCreative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
and iriverIriveririver is a consumer electronics company headquartered in South Korea and widely known for its digital audio players and other portable media devices....
cannot play such files. This means that consumers who want to listen to songs downloaded from the iTunes Store must either have an Apple device (iPod, iPhone, iPad) or convert the files to an open format. - The iPod does not play files encoded in the Microsoft's WMA format or RealNetwork's Helix-protected format used by other online music stores. iPod owners who want to play music from other stores must circumvent the files' DRM.
In July 2004, RealNetworks
RealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of Internet media delivery software and services based in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The company is the creator of RealAudio, a compressed audio format; RealVideo, a compressed video format; RealPlayer, a media player; RealDownloader, a download...
debuted an application named Harmony, which converted files purchased from RealNetworks' RealRhapsody
Rhapsody (online music service)
Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version...
service into a FairPlay-compatible format that an iPod could play. In response, Apple accused RealNetworks of "adopting the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod." and released a firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
upgrade that rendered iPods incapable of playing such files. On January 3, 2005, an iTunes Music Store customer sued Apple, alleging the company broke US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
antitrust laws by freezing out competitors.
In 2006, a controversy erupted about a French draft law aimed at reinforcing the protection of works of art against "piracy", or illegal copying; some clauses of the law could possibly be used to request Apple to provide information about its FairPlay system to manufacturers of competing players. Apple and associated lobbying groups protested the draft law, going as far as to suggest that it condoned "state-sponsored piracy." Some U.S. commentators claimed that the law was a protectionistic measure against the iPod.
Movement against DRM
On February 6, 2007, Steve Jobs called on the Big Four record labels to allow their music to be sold DRM-free. This approach was advocated by the Open Music ModelOpen Music Model
The Open Music Model is an economic and technological framework for the recording industry based on research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
as being revenue maximizing. On April 2, 2007, Apple and the record label EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
announced that the iTunes Store would begin offering, as an additional purchasing option, tracks from EMI's catalog encoded as 256 kbit/s AAC without FairPlay or any other DRM.
On May 29, 2007, Apple released version 7.2 of its iTunes software, allowing users to purchase DRM-free music and music videos from participating labels. These new files, available through the iTunes Store, have been called iTunes Plus music by Apple. iTunes Plus content was offered at a higher price than the DRM-protected versions of the same content.
In October 2007, iTunes Plus became automatic instead of optional for all iTunes Plus licensed content. In addition, the price of iTunes Plus reverted to the lower DRM price.
Almost immediately after the launch of iTunes Plus, reports surfaced that the DRM-free tracks sold by the iTunes Store contained identifying information about the customer, embedding the purchasing account's full name and e-mail address as metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
in the file. This information has always been in iTunes downloads both with and without Fairplay DRM.. Privacy groups expressed concerns that this data could be misused if possessions carrying the files were stolen, and potentially wrongly incriminate a user for copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
.
On January 6, 2009 at the Macworld Expo, Apple announced a significant overhaul of the iTunes Plus catalog with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI offering all their music in iTunes Plus immediately. As of the announcement, 8 million songs were available in Apple's DRM-free format. As of April 2009, all songs became available in the iTunes Plus format, except from the Japanese iTunes store.
Promotions
On Super Bowl SundaySuper Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, February 1, 2004, Apple launched a promotion with Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
in which they gave away 100 million songs, through tokens on selected soft drink bottle caps. Unfortunately for Apple, Pepsi failed to properly distribute the bottles to major metropolitan areas until only weeks before the promotion ended, despite a one-month extension of the deadline by Apple. The promotion was repeated beginning January 31, 2005, with 200 million songs available, and an iPod Mini
IPod mini
The iPod Mini is a digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was the midrange model in Apple's iPod product line. It was announced on January 6, 2004 and released on February 20 of the same year. A second-generation version was announced on February 23, 2005 and released later...
given away every hour.
On July 1, 2004, Apple announced that, starting with the sale of the 95 millionth song, an iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
would be given away to the buyer of each 100 thousandth song, for a total of 50 iPods. The buyer of the 100 millionth song would receive a PowerBook
PowerBook
The PowerBook was a line of Macintosh laptop computers that was designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1991 to 2006. During its lifetime, the PowerBook went through several major revisions and redesigns, often being the first to incorporate features that would later become...
, iPod, and US$10,000 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store.
Ten days later, on July 11, Apple announced that 100 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 100 millionth song was titled "Somersault (Dangermouse
Danger Mouse
Brian Joseph Burton , better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.He...
Remix)" by Zero 7
Zero 7
Zero 7 is a British musical duo consisting of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker. The group members began their musical careers as studio engineers and in 1997 formed the group Zero 7. Their debut album, Simple Things was released in 2001 and received critical acclaim...
, purchased by Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas
Hays, Kansas
Hays is a city in and the county seat of Ellis County, Kansas, United States. The largest city in northwestern Kansas, it is the economic and cultural center of the region. It is also a college town, home to Fort Hays State University...
. He then received a phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, who offered his congratulations, as well as a 40 GB 3rd Generation iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
laser-engraved with a message of thanks.
Inspired by Pepsi's marketing success with iTunes giveaways, Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
partnered with 7-Eleven
7-Eleven
7-Eleven is part of an international chain of convenience stores, operating under Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd, which in turn is owned by Seven & I Holdings Co...
to give away a free iTunes song with every 32 USfloz. Slurpee
Slurpee
A Slurpee is a flavored frozen drink sold by 7-Eleven. In 1967, 7-Eleven licensed the product from the ICEE Company, and began selling it as the Slurpee.-Slurpee history:Machines to make frozen beverages were invented by Omar Knedlik in the late 1950s...
frozen beverage until July 31, 2005. Songs could be redeemed until August 31, 2005 by entering a code printed on the Slurpee cup into the iTunes Music Store application. Coca-Cola did this in spite of having its own music store, myCokeMusic.com
MyCoke
MyCoke was an online chat game used for marketing the Coca-Cola brand and products. It was created in January 2002 by Studiocom an Atlanta based digital agency using core technology from Sulake Corporation, the company responsible for a similar popular online game called Habbo Hotel...
, that competed with the iTunes Music Store in Europe. myCokeMusic.com ceased business on July 31, 2006.
On July 5, 2005, Apple announced that they were counting down to half a billion songs. The buyer of every 100 thousandth song up to 500 million would receive an iPod Mini
IPod mini
The iPod Mini is a digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was the midrange model in Apple's iPod product line. It was announced on January 6, 2004 and released on February 20 of the same year. A second-generation version was announced on February 23, 2005 and released later...
and a 50-song gift card. The grand prize for the person who downloads the 500 millionth song was 10 iPods of their choice, a 10,000-song gift card, 10 50-song gift cards or 4 tickets to the Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
world tour. Twelve days later, on July 17, Apple announced that 500 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 500 millionth song, purchased by Amy Greer of Lafayette
Lafayette, Indiana
Lafayette is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 67,140. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, which has a large impact on...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, was "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill
Faith Hill
Faith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
.
On July 28, 2005, Apple and The Gap
Gap (clothing retailer)
The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...
announced a promotion to award iTunes music downloads to Gap customers who tried on a pair of Gap jeans. From August 8 to August 31, 2005, each customer who tried on any pair of Gap jeans could receive a free download for a song of their choice from the iTunes Music Store.
On February 7, 2006, Apple announced that they were counting down to the billionth song download and began a promotion similar to the previous 100 million and 500 million countdown. Whoever downloaded the billionth song would receive a 20" iMac, ten 60 GB iPods, and a US$10,000 iTunes Music Card. The billionth song was purchased on February 23, 2006 by Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield
West Bloomfield Township, Michigan
West Bloomfield Charter Township is an affluent charter township in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan, within the Detroit metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the township had a population of 64,690. As of 2008, West Bloomfield Township was ranked the 8th highest income city in the...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The purchased song was "Speed of Sound
Speed of Sound (song)
"Speed of Sound" is a song by English alternative rock band Coldplay. It was written by all members of the band for their third album, X&Y. Built around a piano riff, the song builds into a huge, synthesizer-heavy chorus...
" as part of Coldplay's
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
X&Y
X&Y
X&Y is the third studio album by English rock band Coldplay, released 6 June 2005 in the United Kingdom via the record label Parlophone. The album, which features influences of electronic music, was produced by the band and British record producer Danton Supple...
album.
On July 25, 2006, Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and iTunes began offering a promotion where members of the Apple Students group would receive a free 25 song sampler each week until September 30 in various music genres. The idea behind the promotion was to get students more familiar and enthusiastic with each service as Autumn classes approached. However in order to prevent abuse of the promotion, the weekly code that Facebook provided stopped working after it was redeemed one million times. In addition, the promotion caused discontent among international students, as the code was only valid in the U.S. iTunes Music Store.
On April 10, 2009, Apple announced that it will be counting down to the billionth app. Apps being the applications for iPod Touch and iPhone. Launching a counter that is constantly running on Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
, Apple starting counting down. Connor Mulcahey, age 13 of Weston, CT, downloaded the billionth app, "Bump
Bump (application)
Bump is an application created by Bump Technologies for the Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems. It allows two smartphone users to bump their phones together to exchange contact information, photos, and other objects between phones. It was the billionth application downloaded on Apple's...
" by Bump Technologies, and will receive a Macbook Pro 17", a 32 GB iPod Touch, a Time Capsule, and a $10,000 Gift Card for the iTunes store.
On February 11, 2010 Apple announced that it would be counting down to 10 billion songs downloaded. A $10,000 gift card was offered as a prize. On February 25, 2010, the 10 Guess Things Happen That Way
Guess Things Happen That Way
"Guess Things Happen That Way" is a 1958 cross over single by Johnny Cash, which was written by Jack Clement. The single, a song about "a man struggling .....
by Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia.
Other platforms
Although iTunes is only supported on Mac OS XMac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
(only on Mac OS X Leopard and above) and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
operating systems and devices, users of other platforms have been able to buy music from the iTunes Store by a variety of methods. iTunes is known to run passably well in Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
on x86-based computers using the Wine
Wine (software)
Wine is a free software application that aims to allow computer programs written for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Wine also provides a software library, known as Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like...
compatibility layer.
Technical details
Store pages are delivered using standard HTML with a special header. This change was made when iTunes 9.0 was released. iTunes uses WebKitWebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
to render these pages on the screen.
Prior to iTunes 9.0, The iTunes Store was delivered using a custom XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
format that describes the position of all of the elements, boxes, album art and all of their properties — including whether a reference link can be dragged out of iTunes and into another document. The App Store portion of the store is still rendered in this fashion.
The store's back-end software uses WebObjects
WebObjects
WebObjects was a Java web application server from Apple Inc., and a web application framework that ran on the server. It was available at no additional cost. Its hallmark features were its object-orientation, database connectivity, and prototyping tools...
- Apple's own application server it acquired from NeXT
NeXT
Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...
. Content is uploaded to the iTunes data store using an internal Apple program called iTunes Producer, which automatically encodes and adds metadata to uploaded files.
Apple Records
For three years, The BeatlesThe Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' record company Apple Records
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by The Beatles in 1968, as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, and Billy Preston...
were in a legal dispute, Apple Corps v. Apple Computer
Apple Corps v. Apple Computer
Between 1978 and 2006 there were a number of legal disputes between Apple Corps and the computer manufacturer Apple Computer over competing trademark rights...
, with Apple Computer over the name "Apple." On May 8, 2006, a ruling was declared in favor of Apple Computer, but Apple Records said it would appeal the ruling. Despite this, plans were announced by Neil Aspinall in April 2006 to completely remaster and release the entire Beatles catalog on an unspecified online music service, as well as release some previously unheard work by the band. No date was set at that time. It has also been reported that the Beatles' music catalog might initially be appearing on iTunes only, as Apple is reported to be negotiating with Britain's EMI group over an online distribution deal that might be exclusive for a limited time.
During his January 9, 2007 Macworld Keynote address, Apple CEO Steve Jobs used the band's song "Lovely Rita
Lovely Rita
"Lovely Rita" is a song by The Beatles performed on the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, written and sung by Paul McCartney, although as with all McCartney or Lennon-written Beatles' songs, it is credited to Lennon–McCartney...
" to introduce the music-playing capabilities of the company's new iPhone. This was regarded by industry observers as further evidence that the Beatles catalog would be introduced to the iTunes Music Store catalog in the near future. On February 5, 2007, Apple Corps and Apple Inc. announced they had reached a settlement in their legal dispute.
In a related development, Apple announced on August 14, 2007 that the entire solo catalog of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
would be available on iTunes. The solo catalogs of the other three Beatles, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
, and George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
, are also available on iTunes.
On November 16, 2010, the entire Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
catalog was officially made available on the iTunes store.
The Consumer Council of Norway EULA challenge
On June 6, 2006, The Consumer OmbudsmenOmbudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
launched a common open letter to Apple regarding the EULA of iTunes through the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon
Bjørn Erik Thon
Bjørn Erik Thon is a Norwegian jurist and ombudsman.He graduated as cand.jur. in 1989. From 1999 to 2000, during the first cabinet Bondevik Thon worked as a political advisor in the Ministry of Justice and the Police. He has been a member of Grefsen-Kjelsås borough council for the Liberal Party...
. The iTunes case is based upon an official complaint filed by The Consumer Council of Norway
The Consumer Council of Norway
The Consumer Council of Norway is a Norwegian government agency and consumer protection organisation established in 1953. Its objectives are to work to increase consumer influence in society, to contribute to consumer-friendly developments, and to promote measures that strengthen the position of...
on January 25, 2006.
The main allegations were that:
- The EULA is unbalanced to disfavor the customer. Scandinavian law requires any written agreement to favor both parties. The weak party also enjoys protection from exploitation according to Norwegian consumer laws.
- The iTunes Store's use of Digital rights managementDigital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
limits the number of devices purchased songs can be played on. - iTunes' contract entitles the company to at any time change the terms of the contract without notice, including the selection of players or software that must be used for iTunes files, and also the number of times a customer can change or copy already purchased files.
- The EULA is both vague and hard to understand for the customers.
- The EULA states that the legal relationship between the company and customers is regulated by English contract law. It is unreasonable to expect Norwegian consumers to have comprehensive knowledge of English law. Products marketed to Norwegian consumers in Norway are subject to Norwegian law — a right that cannot be waived by a clause in a company's standard customer contract.
- The EULA removes iTunes' responsibility regarding damage to the consumer’s computer due to software errors even though responsibility cannot be waived in Scandinavian Law.
Apple responded July 31, 2006.
On January 22, 2007, German and French consumer groups joined forces with Norway and Finland. Their goal is to create a united European front against iTunes (Germany and France have each had their own negotiation process with iTunes). According to the press statement Apple is in favor of this. The key points in the negotiations were:
- Interoperability — the consumer should have the right and ability to play his or her music on any device of his or her own choice.
- Change of conditions — iTunes must revoke their right to change the terms and conditions (EULA) at any time without the consent of the consumer.
- Liability — iTunes should change its clause limiting its liability to recover consumer damages if they are caused by content sold by iTunes.
- Applicable Law — Consumers entering into a contract with iTunes should be able to rely on the consumer protection rules according to the law of the country in which they live.
EU anti-trust case
In 2004, Which?Which?
Which? is a product-testing and consumer campaigning charity with a magazine, website and various other services run by Which? Ltd ....
magazine complained to the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
about the higher prices in UK for the same songs sold in the EU. Typically 0.99 Euro in EU and 79 pence in the UK. In 2008 the Commission withdrew its investigation after Apple agreed to end the price discrimination.
Universal Music Group
On July 1, 2007, the New York Times reported that UniversalUniversal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
(currently the world's biggest music corporation) would not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes. Instead, Universal said that it would market music to Apple at will, allowing it to remove its songs from the iTunes service on short notice if the two sides did not agree on pricing or other terms.
On August 9, 2007, UMG announced a plan to sell some songs in MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format, without Digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, through a variety of online services such as Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3 is an online music store owned and operated by Amazon.com. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights management from the four major music labels , as well as many independents...
and the newly created gBox
GBox
gBox was an online music store run by a Cupertino, California-based startup called gBox, Inc. As of 2009, it web site was no longer in service.-History:...
. While these tracks continue to be available through the iTunes Store, Universal chose to license these songs in DRM-free formats only through other services.
NBC Universal TV series
On August 31, 2007, Apple announced that programs on NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's 2007-08 television schedule would not be available on iTunes. NBC had informed Apple the previous day that it would not be renewing its contract. It was later clarified that this change only applied to series produced by NBC Universal
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
-owned Universal Media Studios, including Universal-produced shows on other networks such as House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
. NBC programs produced by other studios, such as Chuck
Chuck (TV series)
Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
(Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...
) and Journeyman
Journeyman (TV series)
Journeyman is a 2007 American science fiction television drama created by Kevin Falls for 20th Century Fox Television which aired on the NBC television network. It starred Kevin McKidd as Dan Vasser, a San Francisco reporter who involuntarily travels through time...
(20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television is the television production division of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and a production arm of the Fox Broadcasting Company...
), would remain available on iTunes.
Apple has publicly asserted that NBC would only renew their contract if Apple agreed to a price increase of US$4.99 per episode, which they did not. NBC disputes that claim, claiming that Apple balked at NBC's request to package shows together and make wholesale pricing more flexible. NBC claims that they never asked to double the wholesale price and insisted that their shows would be sold by the iTunes Store through early December. Other networks who sell their shows via iTunes did not follow suit. On December 1, 2007 NBC shows were pulled from iTunes.
On September 9, 2008, Apple and NBC Universal announced that NBC's TV shows were once again available on the US iTunes Store.
The UK iTunes Store has many shows from NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
available, though they are distributed by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. The pricing for these seasons are higher than what they were on the US store, an example being, Season 3 of The Office is priced at UK£43.47 (roughly US$72) vs. $52.99 (US Store HD
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
).
See also
- Comparison of online music storesComparison of online music storesFor streaming services, see list of online music databases.The following table lists online music stores that carry a selection of songs by many record labels and artists. The stores listed below access passive databases and require access through a computer or some allow access and downloads...
- Apple TV - Set top device that plays media from iTunes on an enhanced definition or high definition television
- Digital bookletDigital bookletDigital booklets are the digital equivalent of liner notes that often accompany digital music purchases. They are most commonly distributed in Portable Document Format. One well-known distributor of digital booklets with digital purchases is the iTunes Store; the first instance of this on the...
- Liner notes included in selected online purchases supplied in PDF - iBookstore - Similar store, also from Apple, delivering ePubEPUBEPUB is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum...
content to iPhoneIPhoneThe iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, iPod touchIPod touchThe iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
, and iPadIPadThe iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...