iTunes Store Launched
Apple opened the iTunes Store, selling music at 99 cents per song and rescuing the music industry
April 28, 2003
Apple Reinvents How We Buy Music
Apple launched iTunes in January 2001 as a music management app for Mac computers. Then in April 2003, Apple opened the iTunes Store, allowing people to legally buy and download individual songs for just 99 cents. Before iTunes, your only option was to buy a full album on CD or risk downloading illegally. Steve Jobs called it "a watershed moment in music history," and he was right.
How It Changed the Industry
The iTunes Store sold one million songs in its first week. Within three years, it had sold over one billion songs. Record labels, which had been fighting digital music since Napster, finally agreed to work with Apple. The store gave consumers the power to buy only the songs they wanted rather than a full album. This single-track model disrupted album sales and forced artists and labels to rethink their strategies.
The Legacy of a Digital Marketplace
iTunes did more than sell music — it became a model for digital marketplaces. The App Store, launched in 2008, used the same concept for software. iTunes eventually expanded to movies, TV shows, and podcasts. Apple officially retired the iTunes app in 2019, replacing it with separate apps for music, podcasts, and TV. But the digital download era it created shaped how billions of people access media today. Visit our countdown tool to mark an iTunes anniversary.