April 28, 2003: Apple Launched the iTunes Store

iTunes Store is a digital marketplace selling songs, albums, music videos, ringtones and alert tones. It was launched by Apple Inc. on April 28, 2003 for Mac OS X, and on October 16, 2003 for Microsoft Windows. It launched as a mobile application with iOS on June 29, 2007.^[1]

It previously sold mobile applications until the launch of the App Store on July 10, 2008, and e-books until the launch of the iBooks Store on March 31, 2010.^[2] It also used to facilitate the downloading of podcasts which later became integrated into Apple Podcasts, as well as the provision to buy and rent films and TV shows which has since become integrated into Apple TV.^[3]

The iTunes Store opened as part of then-CEO Steve Jobs‘ push to open a digital marketplace for music. When it launched, it was the only legal digital catalog of music to offer songs from all five major record labels, which played a part in its success and influenced the music downloading business.^[4] Music streaming services began to overtake music downloading, with Apple launching Apple Music on June 30, 2015.^[5]

History

Steve Jobs saw the opportunity to open a digital marketplace for music due to the rising popularity of easily downloadable tracks.^[6][7][8][9] In 2002, Jobs made an agreement with the five major record labels to offer their content through iTunes.^[10] The iTunes Music Store (later iTunes Store) was introduced by Jobs at a special Apple music event in April 2003.^[11][12] Music could be purchased in the iTunes application, and purchases were playable in iTunes or on the iPod. The store was initially available to Mac computers,^[13] and was later expanded to Microsoft Windows in October 2003 when iTunes for Windows was launched.^[14]

In April 2008, the iTunes Store was the largest music vendor in the United States,^[15] and in February 2010, it was the largest music vendor in the world.^[16] The iTunes Store’s revenues in the first quarter of 2011 totaled nearly US$1.4 billion.^[17] By May 28, 2014, the store had sold 35 billion songs worldwide.^[18]

In 2016, it was reported that music streaming services had overtaken digital downloads in sales.^[19] It was reported that iTunes-style digital download sales had dropped 24% as streaming continued to increase.^[20]

In April 2018, the iTunes app was added to the Microsoft Windows 10 app store.^[21] Beginning in the spring of 2019, the iTunes app became available on Samsung Smart TVs.^[22]

In October 2019, with the release of macOS Catalina, iTunes was split into separate Music, TV, and Podcasts apps. Apple’s storefront for movies and television shows moved inside the TV app. Any music in users’ iTunes library would transfer to the Music app, which would still offer access to the iTunes Store.^[23][24]

The iTunes Store is available on most Apple devices, including the Mac (inside the Music app), the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod touch, and the Apple TV, as well as on Windows (inside iTunes). Video purchases from the iTunes Store are viewable on the Apple TV app on Roku^[25] and Amazon Fire TV^[26] devices and certain smart televisions. Unlike other Apple media services such as Apple Music or Apple TV+, there is no web-based interface for the iTunes Store with the exception of limited iTunes Preview pages; the desktop application has to be installed to browse the store. While initially a dominant player in digital media, by the mid-2010s, streaming media services were generating more revenue than the buy-to-own model used by the iTunes Store.^[27][28]

Currently, iTunes is supported on the macOS (Leopard and above) and Microsoft Windows operating systems. iTunes was known to run passably well in Linux on x86-based computers using the Wine compatibility layer; however, by December 2011, this was no longer the case.^[29] Users without iTunes installed can see a content database (but not hear or view the content itself) using the iTunes Preview service, which runs inside a web browser. This service also allows users to watch trailers for upcoming film releases. Should they choose to purchase any media, they will be redirected to iTunes.