It’s been 10 years since iTunes, Apple’s revolutionary digital music store, launched on April 28, 2003, with just 200,000 songs in its database.
With its 25 billionth download earlier this year, according to a [Daily Mail article](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2316473/A-decade-iTunes-How-Apple-revolutionised-way-buy-music.html), iTunes has certainly come a long way in 10 years. It has single-handedly changed the way we buy music and the way the industry sells and popularizes music.
I remember when I got my first iPod, I loved using iTunes to buy music. The thought of owning, storing and playing songs whenever I wanted enticed me. Sure, there was my old-school Windows Media Player, but did _it_ have a whole supermarket full of musical goodies? In a way, iTunes was one of the first to incorporate music buying and music playing into one complete package.
When iTunes came out a decade ago, piracy was a problem in the music industry. Many people pirated music through file-to-file sharing systems such as Napster and stored the stolen music on their MP3 players. It was as easy to buy a song as it was to download it for free.
With iTunes, buying music was easier and cheaper ($0.99 per song was the hands-down rule, originally), and allowed consumers access to a wide variety of songs, genres and artists. It has definitely made paying for music a norm that still exists today which allows customers to support their favorite artists instead of freeloading songs off them.
The most prized feature of iTunes, however, is its breaking apart of CDs into single tracks that can be sold separately. No longer do customers have to buy a $15 album for just one hit single plus a whole bunch of other songs that they don’t even like. This tailored even more to customers’ needs. Their playlists could now consist of a whole variety of songs they love from different albums and artists, creating a more personalized listening experience.
ITunes has grown far beyond music, however. As iPods, iPhones and iPads erupted and evolved, iTunes began to offer thousands of TV shows, movies, books, podcasts and apps, all designed for play on Apple’s high-tech products. ITunes should be called iWalmart instead — it’s a one-stop shopping center with all your entertainment needs. Along with cool features such as Genius, which mixes a playlist of like songs and recommends new entertainment tailored to you, iTunes has evolved a lot over 10 years.
ITunes has certainly revolutionized the way we buy and listen to music, but now it seems streaming music is a huge deal. Web-based services such as Spotify and Pandora allow users to pay a subscription fee to access unlimited content. There’s also the free iHeartRadio, which offers access to a whole variety of radio stations across the nation. And with mobile apps for these services, there seems to be no need for buying and storing songs anymore. I listen to the free version of Spotify on my laptop, and pop open iHeartRadio when I’m out and about. I’m not spending money on songs that I can get them for free. The services are also a way for me to explore new artists and music.
ITunes has also gotten a lot of backlash for the complexity of its program, despite its successes. How many times have I opened iTunes for it to tell me to update to version 300.999, and when I do so, nothing new seems to happen? Plus, when things do change, iTunes gets more complicated with new features and working around the program can be a challenge.
Apple might need to tune things up if it needs to compete with the evolving music industry. That said, the company has certainly has changed and reinvented what was once a land of stolen songs to a more personalized and legal way of listening to music.
I certainly enjoyed writing this column this semester, and I would love to thank everyone for reading! Keep on exploring pop culture.