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The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. that opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offers 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,000 TV shows, and 65,000 films.^[1] When it opened, it was the only legal digital catalog of music to offer songs from all five major record labels.^[2] As of June 2013, the iTunes Store possessed 575 million active user accounts,^[3] and served over 315 million mobile devices.^[4][5]

The iTunes Store is available on most Apple devices, including the Mac (inside the Music app), the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod touch, and the Apple TV, as well as on Windows (inside iTunes). Video purchases from the iTunes Store are viewable on the Apple TV app on Roku^[6] and Amazon Fire TV^[7] devices and certain smart televisions.

History[edit]

Steve Jobs saw the opportunity to open a digital marketplace for music due to the rising popularity of easily downloadable tracks.^{[8][9][10][11]} In 2002, Jobs made an agreement with the five major record labels to offer their content through iTunes.^[12] The iTunes Store was introduced by Jobs at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in April 2003.^[13][14] It was initially available on Mac computers and the iPod,^[15] and was later expanded to Microsoft Windows in October 2003.^[16]

In April 2008, the iTunes Store was the largest music vendor in the United States,^[17] and in February 2010, it was the largest music vendor in the world.^[18] The iTunes Store's revenues in the first quarter of 2011 totaled nearly US$1.4 billion.^[19] By May 28, 2014, the store had sold 35 billion songs worldwide.^[20]

In 2016, it was reported that music streaming services had overtaken digital downloads in sales.^[21] It was reported that iTunes-style digital download sales had dropped 24% as streaming sales continued to increase.^[22]

In April 2018, the iTunes app was added to the Microsoft Windows 10 app store.^[23] Beginning in the spring of 2019, the iTunes app became available on Samsung Smart TVs.^[24]

In October 2019, with the release of macOS Catalina, iTunes was split into separate Music, TV, and Podcasts apps. Apple's storefront for movies and television shows moved inside the TV app. Any music in users' iTunes library would transfer to the Music app, which would still offer access to the iTunes Store.^[25][26]

Features and restrictions[edit]

Pricing model[edit]

History[edit]

Following the introduction of the iTunes Store, individual songs were all sold for the same price, though Apple introduced multiple prices in 2007. Music in the store is in the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, which is the MPEG-4-specified successor to MP3. Originally, songs were only available with DRM and were encoded at 128 kbit/s. At the January 2009 Macworld Expo, Apple announced that all iTunes music would be made available without DRM, and encoded at the higher-quality rate of 256 kbit/s. Previously, this model, known as "iTunes Plus", had been available only for music from EMI and some independent labels. Users can sample songs by listening to previews, ninety seconds in length, or thirty seconds for short tracks.

In addition, the iTunes Store offers apps, which are applications used for various purposes (games, productivity, news, etc.) that are compatible with the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad, although some apps are specifically for the iPhone or iPad only. Some Apps cost money (called "Paid Apps") and some are free (called "Free Apps"). Developers can decide which prices they want to charge for apps, from a pre-set list of pricing tiers, from free to several hundred dollars. When someone downloads an App, 70 percent of the purchase goes to the developer(s), and 30 percent goes to Apple.^[27]

At the Macworld 2008 keynote, Steve Jobs, who was Apple's CEO at the time, announced iTunes movie rentals.^[28] Movies are available for rent in the iTunes Store on the same day they are released on DVD,^[29] though the iTunes Store also offers for rental some movies that are still in theaters. Movie rentals are only viewable for 24 hours (in the US) or 48 hours (in other countries) after users begin viewing them. The iTunes Store also offers one low-priced movie rental a week: in the United States, this rental costs 99 cents. Movie rentals are not yet available in all countries but it is available in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

There is a weekly promotion in which one to three songs are available to download for free to logged-in users. Free downloads are available on Tuesdays, and remain free until the following Tuesday, when the store gets refreshed with new content.^[30] Some artists choose to have select songs available for no charge. This is not available at all iTunes Stores. Some iTunes television programs have begun the same technique to encourage brand loyalty; although those stay longer. In fact, the iTunes Store has a "Free TV Episodes" page where free episodes are organized by length, either as "featurettes" (shorter than 15 minutes) or full length episodes (longer than 15 minutes). Free content can vary from a preview of a show to bonus content to pilot episodes and entire seasons of TV shows (examples of free seasons include HBO's The Weight of the Nation and ABC's Pan-Am). Some networks, such as ABC and NBC, have their own pages of "Free Season Premieres".

While previously the US iTunes Store has offered as many as three free songs each week (the single of the week, Discovery Download, and Canción de la Semana) in recent years, the store has instead replaced the three aforementioned categories with a unified "Single of the Week" banner, with the week's single being from a new up and coming artist.^[31] In 2015, Apple discontinued the "Single of the Week" program.^[32]

Current model[edit]

Music[edit]

• A song usually costs 99¢; however, for songs with high popularity, the price is usually raised to $1.29. By default, songs that are more than 10 minutes are considered "Album Only"; distributors also have the power to make a song "Album Only." For special offers, song prices can be dropped to 69¢ or free.
• By default, music albums cost $9.99 or the price of all the songs combined if it is less than $9.99. However, the music album's distributor can set a higher price for the album (as long as it is some amount of dollars and 99 cents), which usually happens on popular music albums. For special offers, prices of music albums can be dropped to $4.99, $5.99, $6.99, or $7.99.
• On June 30, 2015 Apple launched Apple Music as a subscription service, initially available in 110 countries.^[33] New subscribers are offered a three-month free trial with ongoing subscriptions priced from $9.99/month in the US^[34] and £9.99 in the UK^[35] or €9,99 for countries in the Eurozone.^[36]

TV shows[edit]

• By default, HD television episodes cost $2.99, while standard definition television episodes cost $1.99. However, distributors can make a television episode "Season Only."
• A television season costs either an amount of dollars (determined by number of episodes and definition) and 99 cents with the number in the one's place being a 4, 7, or 9, or the price of all episodes combined.

Movies[edit]

• Unpopular movies cost $7.99 to buy in standard definition and $13.99 or $14.99 to buy in HD. Popular movies or new releases cost $13.99 or $14.99 to buy in standard definition and $17.99 or $19.99 to buy in HD.
• Unpopular movies cost $2.99 to rent in standard definition and $3.99 to rent in HD. Popular movies cost $3.99 to rent in standard definition and $4.99 to rent in HD. For recent releases, this price is increased by $1.
• Movies that are available in 4K and HDR (either HDR10 or Dolby Vision with an HDR10 profile) cost the same price as HD, and are automatically upgraded from HD to 4K and HDR at no additional cost. Movies can be played back in 4K and HDR on an Apple TV 4K or a Mac released in 2018 or later running macOS Catalina when hooked up to a compatible display, and can be played back in HDR on an iPhone 8/X or later, a 10.5" or 11" iPad Pro, and a 2nd gen or later 12.9" iPad Pro running iOS 11 or later, or a MacBook released in 2018 or later running macOS Catalina or later.
• Movies that are available with a Dolby Atmos audio track requires an Apple TV 4K running tvOS 12 or later hooked up to a Dolby Atmos soundbar or receiver, a MacBook released in 2018 or later running macOS Catalina, an iPhone XS/XR running iOS 13 or later, or a 11"/3-gen 12.9" iPad Pro running iPadOS or later.

Apps[edit]

App prices are set by the developer; they can be free of charge or charged at 99 cents plus any number of dollars.

iTunes Store for iOS[edit]

The iTunes Store allows users to purchase and download items directly to portable Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and iPod Touch.^[37] Apple offers three apps, each of which provides access to certain types of content.

• The App Store app sells apps for iOS, and also provides updates to these apps.
• The iTunes Store app sells music and videos.
• The iBooks app sells ebooks.

Other, free content available from the iTunes Store can be accessed from two other iOS apps:

• The Podcasts apps lets users download, subscribe to and sync podcasts.
• The iTunes U app gives access to iTunes U educational material.

Originally, mobile users had to be connected to a Wi-Fi network in order to enter the store, hence its original name: iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. However, at Macworld 2009, Apple issued a software update which automatically allowed 3G and EDGE users to access the store's full functionality for files smaller than 10 megabytes (MB).^[38] The iOS 3.0 update added the ability to download movies, TV shows, audiobooks, iTunes U, and ringtones on mobile devices, in addition to the previously available songs and podcasts. On February 18, 2010, Apple increased the 10 MB 3G download limit to 20 MB. In March 2012, Apple increased the 3G download limit to 50 MB,^[39] and, in late 2013, Apple increased the limit to 100 MB when they released the final version of iOS 7 for their new iPhones.^[40]

Customer support[edit]

In the United States, Apple provides technical support for the iTunes Store via email, there is no phone number for issues with iTunes purchases.^[41] Most customer service inquiries are handled online, via the Report a Problem link in iTunes.^[42]

Charitable donations[edit]

In response to major natural disasters, Apple provides the facility for donations to be made through the iTunes Store. Unlike other iTunes purchases, donations made to charitable organizations through this system are not subject to the 30% handling fee Apple usually charges.^[43] iTunes donation pages were set up following the 2010 Haiti earthquake,^[44] the 2011 Japanese earthquake and ensuing tsunami,^[45] and 2012's Hurricane Sandy.^[43] In all of these cases, donations were redirected to the Red Cross.

Music[edit]

The store began operations after Apple signed deals with five major record companies: EMI, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Bertelsmann Music Group. Songs from more than 2,000 independent labels were added later, the first being from The Orchard on June 24, 2003.

As of April 2020, iTunes offers 60 million songs,^[46][47] including exclusive tracks from numerous artists. Not all artists are available on iTunes, but many holdouts, such as Led Zeppelin and Radiohead, have allowed their music to be sold on the iTunes Store in recent years. New songs are added to iTunes catalog on a daily basis, and the iTunes Store is updated each Tuesday.

Downloaded songs come with song information (name, artist, album) already filled out, though iTunes provides a free service by Gracenote to do this for songs not purchased from the store, although they must be imported with iTunes. Songs that have an entry in the iTunes Store also come with album artwork (Artwork is embedded in the metadata). Artwork can be obtained for songs not purchased from the store for free if the user has an iTunes Store account. Purchased songs do not come with lyrics, nor does iTunes provide a service for acquiring the missing lyrics. However, several third-party applications exist to locate and automatically add lyrics to the user's music.

"Album Only" songs[edit]

Some songs are available from the store by "Album Only", meaning the song can only be acquired through the purchase of the entire album, whereas most songs can be downloaded separately from the album they belong to.

Songs above 10 minutes in length are by default Album Only songs.^[48] However, this is not universally true; for example, Living in the Heart of the Beast by Henry Cow is 16 minutes and 18 seconds, yet is available for individual purchase as of December 24, 2013. Soundtracks also often have many Album Only tracks.

Sometimes, the 10-minute restriction works in an artist's favor. Examples of this include Prince's Lovesexy and the deluxe version of Phoenix's Bankrupt!, which both have an album as a single track instead of being separate, (in Prince's case, the track was the album, while in Phoenix's case, it was a collection of demos and outtakes) forcing the buyer to buy the album itself.

Movie soundtracks normally include songs owned by many different labels, making licensing more complex. For example, Forrest Gump: The Soundtrack includes songs from Peacock Records, Argo Records, and Capitol Records, among many others. Greatest Hits by Red Hot Chili Peppers has only one song, "Higher Ground", that is not available for download on a per song basis, whilst Circus (Britney Spears' 2008 album) has two songs that are available for album download only, Rock Me In and Phonography.

Partial Albums[edit]

Some albums area available from the store by "Partial Album", meaning that albums cannot be entirely purchased, but that one or more of the tracks that can be purchased on the physical CD version of them aren't included, e.g. possible due to licensing issues.

"Work Only" songs[edit]

Some tracks are listed as "Work Only", which means they can only be obtained by purchasing the entire piece of work (within the album); the tracks cannot be bought as singles. Works are generally pieces of classical music: symphonies, string quartets, etc., in multiple movements.

"LP" format[edit]

In September 2009, Apple introduced the iTunes LP format (known pre-launch by the code name "Cocktail")^[49] which features visual, interactive content alongside album tracks and lyrics.

Store Sections[edit]

When entering the US music store, there are multiple sections one can visit. Music is divided into genres (Alternative, Classical, Jazz, Soundtrack, etc.), and there are a number of links to other sections of the store under the Quick Links header. These include Recommended for You, Complete My Album, iTunes LP, as well as thematic sections, such as iTunes Festival sections.

On November 1, 2006, Apple created a category for Latino and Hispanic content, "iTunes Latino". Telemundo and Mun2 made some of their popular programs available for purchase, becoming the first Hispanic television content in the store. It offers music, music videos, audiobooks, podcasts and television shows in Spanish in a single concentrated area. The brief descriptions given to the content are in Spanish as well as several subcategories.^[50]GibraltarianFlamencoMetal band Breed 77, released an exclusive album called Un Encuentro to coincide with the launch of "iTunes Latino". It features 11 songs, all from previous albums, but all sung in Spanish.

In 2012, Apple created Mastered for iTunes. When iTunes launched, the decision was made to standardize on AAC instead of the more popular MP3 format on the supposition that it offers better quality compared to other codecs at similar bit rates.^[51] Mastered for iTunes (MFiT) is a procedure developed by Apple specifically for Mastering Engineers to follow. This set of tools allows Mastering Engineers to audition Apple's proprietary encoding during the mastering process to take into account how music will eventually interact with Apple's encoding. In addition to auditioning the encoder, there is also a tool (called afclip) that processes the audio file and creates a text file for audio clips. Because of this special encoding process, extra attention must be paid to headroom and inter-sample peaking while mastering.^[52] In August 2019 it was announced that the Mastered for iTunes program would be rebranded as Apple Digital Masters. With the rebranding the high resolution masters are now available with Apple Music through streaming.^[53] It is speculated that the rebranded came because the functionality of iTunes would be changing in macOS Catalina and there for the Mastered for iTunes name no longer made sense.

Digital rights management[edit]

While most downloaded files initially included usage restrictions enforced by FairPlay, Apple's implementation of digital rights management (DRM), iTunes later initiated a shift into selling DRM-free music in most countries, marketed as iTunes Plus. On January 6, 2009, Apple announced that DRM had been removed from 80% of its music catalog in the US.^[54] Full iTunes Plus availability was achieved in the US on April 7, 2009, coinciding with the introduction of a three-tiered pricing model;^[55] however, television episodes, many books, and films are still FairPlay-protected.

Censorship[edit]

There is a policy of censoring profanity in titles on iTunes.^[56] This has resulted in a Scunthorpe glitch, by which inoffensive titles are censored due to a coincidental string of letters.^[57] If the song has an explicit label, it will be marked "explicit" next to the song title. If a song is marked "explicit" it is unavailable for purchase if "restrict explicit content" is checked under the parental controls preference. Often there will be a "clean" mark next to the title of some songs, meaning the lyrics have been censored, and is available to purchase on all accounts. Generally if a song is marked "clean" there is an explicit version available as well.

Reception and commercial success[edit]

Sales of iTunes songs, 2003–2010.

In the first 18 hours, the iTunes store sold about 275,000 tracks,^[58][59] and more than 1 million tracks were sold in its first 5 days.^[60][59] When released for Windows in October 2003, iTunes was downloaded more than 1 million times in the first 3 days, selling more than 1 million songs in that period.^{[citation needed]} On December 15, 2003, Apple announced that it had sold 25 million songs.^[61]

In January 2004 at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced (Sellers, 2004) that an unnamed person had purchased US$29,500 worth of music. On March 15, 2004, Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded 50 million songs from iTunes Music Store. A song sold on iTunes gives the artist 9 cents in profit. They also reported that customers were purchasing 2.5 million songs a week which translates to a projected annual run rate of 130 million songs a year. The 50 millionth song was "The Path of Thorns" by Sarah McLachlan.^[62]

On April 28, 2004, iTunes Music Store marked its first anniversary with 70 million songs sold, clear dominance in the paid online music market and a slight profit.^[63] The store also offers hundreds of movie trailers and music videos, in an attempt to boost soundtrack sales. In the conference, Steve Jobs reiterated that a subscription service is still not in the interest of customers and reported that only 5 million of the 100 million songs offered in the Pepsi giveaway campaign were redeemed, which he blamed on technical problems in Pepsi distribution. According to an Apple press release dated August 10, 2004, iTunes Music Store was the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs.^[64] Also, iTunes Music Store at that point maintained a 70 percent market share of legal music downloads.

The emerging monopoly of the store was criticized in 2011 by Mike Lang of Miramax for "effectively strangling the industry". He says that because the music industry has allowed too few content providers, it is now suffering. Lang views the issue as being more of a threat than music piracy.^[65]

Sales milestones[edit]

Music[edit]

• 100 million songs sold: July 11, 2004

(Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas, bought the 100 millionth song, and the twenty-year-old received a call from Steve Jobs congratulating him.)^[66]

• 125 million songs sold: September 1, 2004^[67]
• 150 million songs sold: October 14, 2004^[68]
• 200 million songs sold: December 16, 2004

(Ryan Alekman of Belchertown, Massachusetts, bought the 200 millionth song, which was one of the tracks on U2's digital box setThe Complete U2.)^[69]

On July 5, 2005, Apple announced a promotion counting down to half a billion songs sold.^[73]

• 500 million songs sold: July 18, 2005

(Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, bought the 500 millionth song, "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill.)^[74]

• 850 million songs sold: January 10, 2006^[75]
• 1 billion songs sold: February 23, 2006

(Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan, bought the billionth song, "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay.^[76] He later got a call from Steve Jobs with the news that the sixteen-year-old was getting ten iPods, an iMac, a $10,000 music gift certificate, and a scholarship established in his name at the Juilliard School.)^[66]

• 1.5 billion songs sold: September 12, 2006^[77]
• 2 billion songs sold: January 10, 2007^[77]
• 2.5 billion songs sold: April 9, 2007^[78]
• 3 billion songs sold: July 31, 2007^[79]
• 4 billion songs sold: January 15, 2008
• 5 billion songs sold: June 19, 2008^[80]
• 6 billion songs sold: January 6, 2009^[81]
• 8 billion songs sold: July 21, 2009
• 8.6 billion songs sold: September 9, 2009
• 10 billion songs sold: February 24, 2010^[82]

(Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia, downloaded "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash. At 71 years old, he was the oldest milestone winner to that date. He received a call from Steve Jobs and a $10,000 iTunes gift card.)^[83]

Video[edit]

• 1 million videos sold: October 31, 2005^[87]
• 3+ million videos sold: December 6, 2005^[88]
• 8 million videos sold: January 10, 2006^[75]
• 15 million videos sold: February 23, 2006^[76]
• 45 million videos sold: September 12, 2006^[77]
• 50 million television episodes sold: January 10, 2007^[77]
• 1.3 million feature-length films sold: January 10, 2007^[77]
• 2 million feature-length films sold: July 31, 2007^[89]
• 200 million television episodes sold: October 16, 2008^[90]
• 1+ million HD episodes sold: October 16, 2008^[90]

Applications[edit]

• 10 million apps downloaded: July 14, 2008^[91]
• 100 million apps downloaded: September 9, 2008^[92]
• 200 million apps downloaded: October 22, 2008^[93]
• 300 million apps downloaded: December 5, 2008^[94]
• 500 million apps downloaded: January 16, 2009^[95]
• 800 million apps downloaded: March 17, 2009^[96]
• 1 billion apps downloaded: April 23, 2009^[97]
• 1.5 billion apps downloaded: July 14, 2009^[98]
• 1.8 billion apps downloaded: September 9, 2009
• 2 billion apps downloaded: September 28, 2009
• 3 billion apps downloaded: January 5, 2010
• 7 billion apps downloaded: October 20, 2010
• 10 billion apps downloaded: January 22, 2011^[99]
• 15 billion apps downloaded: July 7, 2011^[100]
• 25 billion apps downloaded: March 5, 2012^[5]
• 30 billion apps downloaded: June 11, 2012^[101]
• 35 billion apps downloaded: October 23, 2012^[102]
• 40 billion apps downloaded: January 7, 2013^[103]
• 50 billion apps downloaded: May 16, 2013
• 60 billion apps downloaded: October 22, 2013
• 75 billion apps downloaded: June 2, 2014^[104]
• 100 billion apps downloaded: June 8, 2015^[105]
• 250 billion apps downloaded: December 2016 ^[106]

Market share[edit]

• On September 12, 2006, Steve Jobs announced in his "It's Showtime" keynote that Apple had 88% of the legal US music download market.^[77]
• On April 11, 2007, Apple announced that the iTunes Store had sold more than two million movies, making it the world's most popular online movie store.^[89]
• On February 26, 2008, the iTunes Store surpassed Best Buy to become the second-largest music vendor in the US behind Walmart, and became number one on April 3, 2008.^[17]
• On October 10, 2012, the iTunes Store was reported to have a 64% share of the online music market, and a 29% share of all music sales worldwide.^[107]

Internationalization[edit]

Originally only Mac OS X users who had a US billing address could buy songs with the service, but Steve Jobs announced plans to support both Windows and non-American users. The Windows version of iTunes and support for the Windows platform from iTunes Music Store were announced on October 16, 2003, with immediate availability. Beginning in 2004, the service has become available in a number of countries other than the United States: