In 2000 Steve Jobs, Apple’s iCEO saw
the peer-to-peer network as more than an
illegal nuisance and began to develop a
way to leverage the Napster revolution
into the next killer Mac app.
Audio players such as
Audion and SoundApp
had already exposed
the inadequacies of
QuickTime.
Steve Jobs approached
Robin Casady and Michael
Greene to discuss their
SoundJam MP app, a
powerful digital encoding
program that looked a lot
like Apple’s QuickTime
player.
Casady & Greene sold the
rights for SoundJam to Apple
for an undisclosed sum.
Apple ransacked SoundJam as it
incorporated many of its
signature features into iTunes,
including visualizers, plug-ins,
online retrieval of album data and
drag-and-drop playlist creation
iTunes 1 (Jan. 9, 2001-Oct. 23, 2001)
275,000 copies
were downloaded
in the first week.
By offering iTunes as a free
download and installing it on every
new Mac, Apple essentially cut
down the competition at the pass or
at least put a good scare into them.
Steve Jobs said at the time:
"iTunes is miles ahead of every
other jukebox application, and we
hope its dramatically simpler user
interface will bring even more
people into the digital music
revolution."
iTunes 1 didn't have the ability to burn a
CD on an external drive, 1.1 update that
added third-party support, and the
launch of the controversial "Rip, Mix,
Burn" campaign.
iTunes 2 (Oct. 23, 2001-July 17, 2002)
It quickly became clear that
iTunes was every bit as
revolutionary as Apple
hope.
In October 2001,built exclusively
to leverage the popularity of
Apple's music app,the iPod
came along with a brand-new
version of iTunes that allowed it
to seamlessly integrate with the
songs and playlists stored on
our Macs.
The real reason for iTunes 2 was
iPod support, offering an
unparalleled experience that
transferred a few days’ worth of
music from your Mac to your
pocket in just about 10 minutes.
Apple added "the
three most requested
features" into iTunes
2: MP3 CD burning, a
10-band equalizer and
cross fading.
The new crossfader
eliminated the annoying
gaps between songs and
paved the way for a new
generation of laptop DJs,
and a sound enhancer
appealed to audiophiles by
adding depth and richness
to tracks.
iTunes 3 (July 17, 2002-April 28, 2003)
iTunes 3 was a mostly
incremental update with
few dramatic changes.
In the 18 months
since iTunes
inception, some 14
million copies were
been downloaded.
iPod second
generation
introduced
Apple reduced prices,
greater capacities and
slimmer enclosures made
the second-generation
iPod even more desirable
Apple kept iTunes tied to the Mac,
forcing Windows users to sync their
iPods with MUSICMATCH, a sub-par
jukebox that basically served as an
advertisement for iTunes’ sleek
interface and finer points.
iTunes 3 added a few dozen new
features, including track ratings, Sound
Check for consistent volume playback,
support for Audible audiobooks and Smart
Playlists, which streamlined and automated
the creation of digital mixes based on a
series of predetermined rules.
A few other enhancements--new track tags,
library consolidation, playlist
importing/exporting and track joining,
added to the experience and widened the
gap between iTunes and every other
jukebox on the market.
THE STORE iTunes 4 (April 28,
2003-Sept. 7, 2005)
A first-of-its-kind shopping experience the
iTunes Music Store brought 200,000 high-quality
songs from BMG, EMI, Sony Music
Entertainment, Universal and Warner under one
fully searchable, completely legal roof.
A million tracks were sold in the
first week; four months later it
surpassed 10 million.
Along the road to the milestone 100 millionth
download, however, Apple took iTunes 4 in a
decidedly different direction when it rolled
out the second generation of its store.
Promised to deliver the iTunes Music Store to
Windows users by year’s end. A near-identical
port of its award-winning iApp made its way onto
PCs in October 2003 with a streamlined,
expanded store.
With a 28-month upgrade path, version 4 stayed on desktops longer than any other iTunes release,
gaining a slew of new features before retiring to digital graveyard: iMix, Party Shuffle, Apple
Lossless, Podcasting, AirTunes, iPod photo and shuffle, and the European and Asian Music Stores all
made their debuts under the iTunes 4 umbrella. (10 upgrades in total)