August 10, 2004: The iTunes Music Store catalog grows to 1 million songs in the United States, a first for an online music service.
Stocking music from all five major record labels and another 600 indies, and with more than 100 million songs downloaded, the iTunes Music Store is officially established as the world’s No. 1 online music service.
“The iTunes Music Store offers the world’s most extensive collection of downloadable music with over one million tracks available,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of applications, in a press release. “With more than one million songs, over 600 independent labels and dozens of innovative features, iTunes is the ultimate destination for discovering and downloading music.”
iTunes Music Store catalog hits 1 million songs
I remember using iTunes in the early days of the service. When the iTunes Music Store launched on April 28, 2003, it was infinitely easier to use than downloading services like Napster. Reaching the million-song milestone a year and a half later meant the majority of music fans were well-served. By that point, iTunes dominated the legal music game, with a whopping 70% market share for singles and albums downloaded.
Today, of course, 1 million songs is a relatively small number. Every serious streaming music service trots out the “30 million songs in its catalog” stat, which describes Spotify and Tidal as well as Apple Music. Market leader Spotify claims it adds more than 20,000 new songs every single day.
iTunes, meanwhile, has been steadily declining since becoming the largest worldwide music vendor in February 2010. While it has sold around 40 billion songs in total, its interface is in desperate need of an overhaul. Meanwhile, Apple is switching its attention away from downloads and toward streaming. Witness the fact that this fall’s macOS Sierra directs customers to Apple Music inside the iTunes app.
This “Today in Apple History” entry serves as a reminder that Apple was the early ruler of the online music marketplace. What was your first experience using iTunes? Leave your comments below.
Photo: Apple
Also today in Apple history:
August 10, 1998: The tech press reports on a proposal from developers that Apple should make its source code available to devs as open source. Doing so, they argued, would allow Apple to further differentiate itself from the more controlled environment of Windows. It would also shield Apple from the “serious threat from the Linux groundswell,” as InfoWorld phrased it.
I would’ve loved to see Apple CEO Steve Jobs‘ reaction when one of his lieutenants made him aware of the petition (which was roundly ignored).
