May 5, 2003: Just a week after launching the iTunes Music Store, Apple reaches an incredible milestone with more than 1 million songs sold.

Particularly notable is the fact that more than half the songs purchased are albums. This quickly dispels fears that selling tracks individually will kill the record industry’s dominant format. In addition, more than half of the 200,000 songs initially available on iTunes get downloaded at least once.

“In less than one week we’ve broken every record and become the largest online music company in the world,” says Steve Jobs in a statement. “Apple has created the first complete solution for the digital music age — you can purchase your favorite music online at the iTunes Music Store, mix your favorite tracks into playlists with iTunes, and take your entire music collection with you everywhere with the super-slim new iPods.”

It’s a roaring success for Apple’s newest venture!

Apple Music has added another media industry veteran to its roster of top executives.

Former Warner Music Group head of innovation, Jeff Bronkikowski, revealed that he has accepted a job with the iPhone-maker to become the new global head of strategic music initiatives for Apple Music.

Apple has reportedly signed its first major music streaming deal since launching Apple Music in 2015.

Sources “familiar with the matter” say it has signed a new, cut-rate agreement with Warner Music Group, and is on the verge of reaching a similar deal with Sony Music Entertainment.

Negotiations between music streaming service Spotify and all three major record labels have hit a snag lately and Apple Music is a big reason why.

Spotify’s licensing agreements with Sony, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have reportedly been on a rolling month-by-month basis for much of 2016, yet the companies haven’t been able to hammer out long-term deals yet because Spotify isn’t willing to share as much revenue as Apple Music.

The labels may have resisted music streaming early on, but Warner Music Group will be grateful it’s big business today.

So big, in fact, that thanks to services like Apple Music and Spotify, streaming music just raked in more revenue than anything else last quarter.