Apple® today celebrates the first anniversary of its iTunes® Music Store.
Launched one year ago today, the iTunes Music Store has revolutionized the music
industry with its 99 cents-per-song pricing, free previews, one-click purchasing
and downloading, and groundbreaking personal use rights.
In its first year, music fans have purchased more than 70 million songs, making
it the number one online music service in the world with more than 70 percent
market share of legal downloads for singles and albums. iTunes customers are
currently purchasing 2.7 million songs per week, a rate of 140 million songs
per year.
"iTunes has exceeded our wildest expectations during its first year, charting
a new direction for the music industry," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.
"The unbeatable combination of iTunes and the market-leading iPod
offers music fans a seamless experience for discovering, buying, managing and
enjoying their music anywhere."
To kick off its second year, Apple today launched the third generation iTunes
Music Store, featuring the industry's largest online music catalog of over 700,000
songs from all five major music companies and over 450 independent music labels,
as well as groundbreaking new features including:
-- "iMix," a new way for users to publish playlists of their favorite
songs on the iTunes Music Store for other users to preview, rate and purchase.
iMix creates a virtual iTunes community, enabling users to discover new music
recommended by fellow music fans and rate the iMixes published by other iTunes
users;
-- "Party Shuffle," a new playlist that automatically chooses songs
from a user's music library, displays just-played and upcoming songs, and allows
users to easily add, delete and rearrange the upcoming songs on the fly. Party
Shuffle is the ultimate DJ at any gathering, and a great way for users to get
reacquainted with their personal music library;
-- Radio Charts from more than 1,000 radio stations, enabling users to easily
find and buy the top songs played on local radio stations in major US markets
and buy directly from the charts with just one click;
-- A new Music Video section featuring more music videos than ever, and a new
Movie Trailer section with the most popular movie trailers on the Internet and
links to buy songs from the soundtrack or audiobooks related to the movie;
-- The rights to play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store, including
songs previously purchased, on up to five personal computers, two more than
before;
-- The ability to create and print stunning CD jewel case inserts for albums
or compilation discs, combining album art and track lists using professionally
designed templates. For compilation CDs, iTunes will automatically generate
a mosaic of album covers based on the chosen songs; and
-- Automatic WMA to AAC conversion, enabling Windows users to automatically
create iTunes versions of their songs encoded in unprotected WMA. Converting
an entire music library into iTunes and syncing it onto iPod(TM) is now a snap.
Honoring Apple's commitment to discourage music theft while preserving fair
personal use rights, the number of times a user can burn the same playlist onto
CDs with iTunes is being reduced from ten burns to seven. Users can still burn
a single song an unlimited number of times and listen to their music on an unlimited
number of iPods.
Apple is marking the first anniversary of its iTunes Music Store by thanking
its customers with a free song of the day for the next eight days from artists
who have helped make iTunes a runaway success, including Foo Fighters, Avril
Lavigne, Courtney Love, Annie Lennox, Jane's Addiction, Counting Crows, Renee
Fleming and Nelly Furtado. Following the anniversary celebration, the iTunes
Music Store will continue to offer a "Free Single of the Week" from
up-and-coming bands, spotlighting emerging artists and offering iTunes customers
a risk-free way to discover new music.
The iTunes Music Store continues to lead the industry with
exclusive tracks from more than 150 artists, and starting today, offers dozens
of out-of-print recordings from Motown Records, including the first 45 singles
and 45 hard-to-find albums from the Motown archive -- available digitally for
the first time. The iTunes Music Store features the exclusive digital music
catalog of Walt Disney Records, including soundtracks from Disney's classic
animated films and Disney/Pixar's computer-animated films. New exclusives available
today include the new Beastie Boys single, "Ch-Check it Out" from
the group's first studio release in five years and the exclusive digital release
of The Foo Fighters catalog.
Pricing & Availability
iTunes 4.5 for Mac® and Windows includes the iTunes Music Store and is
available as a free download immediately from www.apple.com/itunes. Purchase
and download of songs from the iTunes Music Store for Mac or Windows requires
a valid credit card with a U.S. billing address. Further information about Apple's
digital music products can be found at www.apple.com/ipod and www.apple.com/itunes.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple
II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple
is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students,
educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its
innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.
NOTE: Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Mac, Mac OS, iTunes and iPod are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names
may be trademarks of their respective owners.
