News
Apple celebrates fifth anniversary of iTunes Store [updated]
Apple has launched a special promo section on the iTunes Store celebrating the fifth anniversary of the store’s launch. “iTunes Turns Five” features a look back at bestselling and staff-recommended media from each of the store’s five years of operation. Launched on April 28, 2003, the iTunes Music Store initially offered “more than 200,000 songs and a handful of exclusive tracks.” Over the years it has grown to offer more than 10 million songs, as well as movies, TV shows, iPod games, podcasts, audiobooks, and music videos, a diversification reflected when the store dropped the word “Music” from its name. As such, each year spotlighted in the promotion represents the content available that year; for instance, 2003’s promo page features only music, while 2005’s page spotlights music as well as TV programming (launched on October 12 of that year), podcasts, and audiobooks. The iTunes Store is now the largest music retailer in the U.S., and has sold more than 4 billion songs.
Update: Following the publication of this story, Apple made alterations to the iTunes Turns Five promo pages to change the number of songs available on the iTunes Store from 10 million to 6 million; no explanation has been given for the change.
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1
way to go
Posted by Mitchell Ezell on April 28, 2008 at 7:14 AM (PST)
2
Give me lossless DRM-free tracks for $1.29, and I’ll start buying.
Posted by Galley in Greenville, SC on April 28, 2008 at 10:01 AM (PST)
3
For $1.29 a track, it would be cheaper to buy the physical CD.
Posted by otaku on April 29, 2008 at 7:01 AM (PST)
4
I thought the iTunes Plus songs were lossless and DRM free?
Posted by Enigmafan420 on April 29, 2008 at 10:10 AM (PST)
5
Enigmafan420, not only are there few iTunes plus tracks (not a single song I ever bought on itunes or wanted seems to have the plus option) but those songs are at 192kbps, lossless audio is at 1411kbps, and the highest quality mp3 used is either V0 or 320kbps, with V0 being a variable bitrate somewhere between 200kbps and 256kbps.
otaku, yes, if you love every single song then it would be, but most people only want a couple songs or even 1 song from each CD so lossless drm free music at $1.29 a track would be a great deal, I would certainly go for it, especially if they could have something special like 24 bit audio or a 92khz sampling rate.
Sadly even when lossless does come to iTunes, if it ever does, it will be only on limited tracks for a good while. I know iTunes it missing at least 1/3 of ym entire music collection just because it is Japanese and they don’t offer that music at all.
Posted by Ben on April 29, 2008 at 10:55 AM (PST)
6
For $1.29 a track, it would be cheaper to buy the physical CD.
Posted by otaku on April 29, 2008 at 8:01 AM (PDT)
DITTO!!
Posted by NetNet711 in Houston, Texas on April 29, 2008 at 1:26 PM (PST)
7
The iTunes plus songs are at 256 mps-which is twice the quality of the 128 mps DRM songs-and nearly every song I have purchased in the last 6 months is iTunes +-and the price has been lowered to 99 cents.
I must admit-I STILL buy most of my CDs though-electronic copies are no good against hard drive failure and if I have to burn them to a CD for back-up, I may as well get the CD art and a decent case for it-thus I purchase the originals.
Posted by Enigmafan420 on April 29, 2008 at 2:13 PM (PST)
8
Enigmafan420, thats 256kbps, not mbps, but I agree with you about the CD’s acting as backups.
Ben, an uncompressed music track is 1411kbps, but when compressed to lossless, the bitrate tends towards 500-700kbps. Just being picky. Of course, it decompresses to 1411 when played.
Also, I don’t know about 92khz sampling rate, but I have ripped some DVD-A at 48khz, and I *think* I can hear the difference from 44.1
Posted by otaku on April 30, 2008 at 5:32 AM (PST)
9
My Bad-thinking about the new 3-g iPhone I guess
I DID know it was KPS…
Posted by Enigmafan420 on April 30, 2008 at 7:14 AM (PST)