Apple celebrates 5 years of iTunes Store, 10 million song catalog

[franciscoandre]

Ups, after using iTunes Store for 2 years, only today I realized that I cam to this world on the same days this music online retailer does! Not bad, at all!

[AppleInsider]

Apple on Monday took pause in a section of its iTunes Store to celebrate half a decade of the digital download service that brought mainstream acceptance to the market for paid digital downloads.

"This is where it all began. Launching on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store offered an easy way to download the music you love for $0.99 a song with no subscription fees," Apple wrote in a note to iTunes shoppers. "We had more than 200,000 songs and a handful of exclusive tracks."

Since then, the service has gone on to become the No. 1 retailer of music in the United States with a music catalog of more than 10 million songs (announced today, up from 6 million), in addition to over 20,000 audiobooks, 10,000 music videos, 350 television shows, and 1000 feature films.

Shoppers on the iTunes Store Monday were greeted with a sign paying homage to the service on its fifth birthday, and directing them to a new section of the store "offering a look back at all the great music, video, and exclusives you first discovered on iTunes, highlighting the songs and shows that defined each year."

During a recent conference call covering second fiscal quarter results, members of Apple's leadership said the iTunes Store is growing to comprise an increasingly larger portion of the company's business each quarter.



The store maintains a customer base of over 50 million, management said, and continues to dominate the US market for paid digital music downloads with an over 85 percent share, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

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[dontlookleft]

mo money mo.

[solipsism]

They just missed selling 5 Billions song in 5 years. That would have been great for marketing. Though they can still say they sold 5B in their 5th year, when they achieve that goal in about 2 months.

[eAi]

No mention on the UK store...

[SpamSandwich]

Congratulations, Steve and Apple folks. You're making some of us a lot of moolah.

[hdasmith]

Originally Posted by eAi

No mention on the UK store...

Hardly surprising as it didn't launch here for a couple of years after (I can't remember exactly how long ago it was).

[coolfactor]

This celebration is only in the US store, as there is where iTunes Music Store launched. Please adjust the headline and/or article to clarify this.

One can switch their iTunes to the US store to access the celebration pages.

[zorinlynx]

Now if only they'd wake up and make the majority of the catalog DRM-free. I've been buying from Amazon MP3 lately simply because of the lack of DRM.

iTunes Plus selection utterly pales in comparison to Amazon MP3.

WAKE UP, Apple! when the choice is between no DRM or DRM, I'll go no DRM EVERY TIME. It's a no brainer!

[coolfactor]

Originally Posted by zorinlynx

Now if only they'd wake up and make the majority of the catalog DRM-free. I've been buying from Amazon MP3 lately simply because of the lack of DRM.

iTunes Plus selection utterly pales in comparison to Amazon MP3.

WAKE UP, Apple! when the choice is between no DRM or DRM, I'll go no DRM EVERY TIME. It's a no brainer!

It's not Apple, it's the music labels holding iTunes back in this respect. Apple wants DRM-free tracks for all of their music. That's obvious.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by zorinlynx

WAKE UP, Apple! when the choice is between no DRM or DRM, I'll go no DRM EVERY TIME. It's a no brainer!

Recall that Apple was teh first to suggest DRM-free music. They were also the first to get a studio on board. They also got the wrath of the Warner CEO from even suggesting such an absurd idea. That same Warner CEO went on to offer Amazon DRM-free audio. Apple clearly wants DRM-free audio as it will them sell more devices, but the studios want to usurp Apple's from its throne.

[Chris_CA]

Originally Posted by hdasmith

Hardly surprising as it didn't launch here for a couple of years after (I can't remember exactly how long ago it was).

"On 15 June 2004, the iTunes Music Store was launched in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Music_Store

[Porchland]

And STILL no Beatles. (And no Garth Brooks either, which I noticed this weekend.)

[federmoose]

Originally Posted by coolfactor

It's not Apple, it's the music labels holding iTunes back in this respect. Apple wants DRM-free tracks for all of their music. That's obvious.

seconded. also, can it just be mentioned that the reason the movie library is not that large is also not due to Apple but with the distribution companies? and furthermore, the reason we can rent some movies we can't buy is because its easier to get a rental contract than a contract for purchasing? sorry for the unrelated rant, but those darned reviews on iTunes really annoy me.

Though I must say the labels are succeeding at holding iTunes back. I hate the idea of purchasing non-plus music knowing I'll eventually pay another $0.30 to upgrade. I've started buying physical CD's for the quality in the interim.

[federmoose]

Originally Posted by Porchland

And STILL no Beatles. (And no Garth Brooks either, which I noticed this weekend.)

this isn't apple's fault either. you know about the dispute right? Apple (then Computer) Inc kept its name by promising it would never get into the music business after Apple records sued their butts for taking their name... oops...

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by federmoose

this isn't apple's fault either. you know about the dispute right? Apple (then Computer) Inc kept its name by promising it would never get into the music business after Apple records sued their butts for taking their name... oops...

I think McCartney may need the money now. Though I hear that his ex-wife may be able to get a piece of that too, which is absolutely absurd.