Apple Inc. AAPL launched iTunes about 23 years ago, forever changing how people consume music. Initially launched as a music player for Mac users, iTunes’ impact on the music industry would be profound over the next decade.
Like many other products and services launched under his leadership, iTunes was a Jobs project, too. He noticed the opportunity that a digital music marketplace provided, and brought together five music labels – again, it was not an easy task.
After months of hard negotiations, Apple onboarded Warner Music, Universal, BMG, EMI and Sony, launching the iTunes Music store in April 2003, with 200,000 songs.
The rest, as they say, is history.
A Transformation in Music Consumption
On Jan. 9, 2001, iTunes launched. A little over two years later, the iTunes store debuted. It allowed users to buy and download individual tracks as well as albums. This move also set the tone for the era of digital music, removing barriers that existed at the time, and reducing the reliance on music CDs.
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Over the years, the iTunes store evolved from being just a music store to one that sold music videos, TV shows, podcasts, and more. It allowed music labels to stem the loss of revenue due to piracy since users could now pick and choose the songs they wanted to buy, instead of paying for songs they didn’t want to pay for.
Coupled with iPods, iTunes store helped Apple become the largest music vendor in the U.S. in April 2008. By February 2010, Apple became the largest music vendor in the world, having sold 10 billion songs.
Apple’s stock, adjusted for stock splits and other corporate actions, was $0.30692 on Jan. 9, 2001.
Now, 23 years later, its stock price is $185.56 — an increase of 60,359% during this period.
If you had invested $1,000 in Apple stock on Jan. 9, 2001, today, you would have $604,588, 23 years later.
On the other hand, a similar investment in the Nasdaq index would be worth $6,080, and the S&P 500 worth $3,662.
Moving Forward
Since their launch, the iTunes software as well as the music store have come a long way ahead.
In the first 10 years of its launch, over 25 billion songs were sold worldwide through iTunes. It defined an entire era for music lovers.
However, while iTunes served music, TV shows and podcasts, all three services have now been split into their respective apps.
Apple Music is the ideological successor of iTunes – users can still listen to their favorite songs, but they will have to subscribe to the service now.
Note that if you are still a fan of buying songs, you can do that by searching for it in the Apple Music app and purchasing the title from the iTunes store.
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Photo: Courtesy Tom Coates on Flickr