The iTunes Store is celebrating its ten years of existence!

On yesterday, Sunday, April 28, the iTunes Store celebrated its ten years of existence. What began as a new way of consuming music has become such a phenomenon that many actors are aligned. Today, however, Apple has to contend with streaming platforms. In 2001, Apple launched the first version of its iTunes software. Two years later, the 4.0 version includes for the first time a music store: these are the beginnings of the iTunes Store. The latter was launched on 28 April 2003, but some had waited more than a year (15 June 2004) to qualify. It is a new way of consuming music: you can buy an album as a collection of files, and costs 9.99 Euros / Dollars, but titles can be purchased separately for 99 cents.


During the early years, the music sold in the store is decked out with digital locks (DRM). The titles are encoded in AAC 128 kb / s with a sampling rate to 44 100 kHz. It was not until 2007 that significant change is launched: the complete abolition of DRM and doubling the quality of securities (256 kb / s), without additional cost. The success of the platform has never denied and the iTunes Store is the premier source of buying music online. In March 2010, 10 000 million th downloading was performed by Louie Sulcer, won the contest organized by Apple and got $ 10 000 gift card. If today the store has about 15 million shares, it has not always been so. At launch, the store does indeed contain only 200,000 pieces. It will take several years and gradually agreements with the majors for the store actually completes and that the securities in the millions. Gradually, the store will also integrate independent labels.


The chronology of the iTunes Store is that of a "success story". However, the digital market is changing and many are now turning to streaming platforms such as Deezer, Spotify or Rdio. No more pay per unit: one subscription lets the user access to the entire catalog without limit, soon this may be a model that Apple probably also works.