September 8, 2003: Apple reveals that the iTunes Music Retailer just lately offered its 10 millionth tune obtain. The tune in query? Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated.”
Come to think about it, “You fall and you crawl and you break and you take what you get and you turn it into [success]” describes Apple fairly nicely within the late ’90s and early 2000s.
iTunes Music Retailer: A giant hit that bought even greater
Apple launched the iTunes Music Retailer in April 2003 to counter file-sharing networks like Napster and LimeWire. These peer-to-peer networks turned the web right into a haven for music piracy. Folks all over the world digitized their music collections, making tracks accessible for anybody to obtain without cost. Naturally, this fearful the file business.
After placing offers with file labels massive and small, Apple provided customers a simple and bonafide manner to purchase digital variations of songs to play on their Macs and iPods. (Apple launched the digital music participant in October 2001.)
The iTunes Music Retailer offered tracks for 99 cents every. Shoppers may be certain they had been getting a legit observe — and that they wouldn’t be breaking the legislation. Because of this, Apple’s retailer turned an instantaneous hit with customers and panicky file execs alike.
iTunes’ 10 millionth tune was truly downloaded at 11:34 p.m. Pacific on September 3, 2003. Nevertheless, it took Apple just a few days to launch the information. With the iTunes Music Retailer working for little greater than 4 months, the astonishing stat showcased the huge success of Apple’s new digital music market.
“Legally selling ten million songs online in just four months is a historic milestone for the music industry, musicians and music lovers everywhere,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs mentioned in a press release. “Apple offers the only complete solution for digital music with iTunes and the amazing iPod, which now holds 10,000 songs in your pocket.”
Extra iTunes milestones forward
There’s little question that 10 million downloads sounds spectacular. Nevertheless, what appears extra superb, when considered traditionally, is simply how comparatively paltry that quantity is.
The next July, Apple revealed that the iTunes Music Retailer had offered its 100 millionth tune — Zero 7’s “Somersault (Dangermouse remix).” Much more superb, by February 2010, iTunes offered its 10 billionth tune: Johnny Money’s “Guess Things Happen That Way.” Right this moment, Apple sits north of 40 billion songs offered, regardless of the iTunes Retailer giving solution to streaming by way of Apple Music.
What was your first iTunes Music Retailer obtain?
Do you bear in mind the early days of iTunes? What was the primary tune you downloaded from Apple’s groundbreaking on-line music retailer? Go away your feedback and recollections under.