In 1999, Cassady & Greene introduced a small music program called SoundJam, which quickly became very popular – including being named Program of the Year by MacWorld. Quick access to music tracks, easy playback, that was the concept. But not only users, Apple also became aware of the software and acquired the rights to SoundJam MP at the beginning of 2000. At the same time, the developers moved to Cupertino. SoundJam would become the basis of what Apple presented 25 years ago at MacWorld San Francisco: iTunes 1.0. It was actually a revolution
“It will go down in history as a turning point in the music industry. This is the stuff that milestones are made of,” Steve Jobs promised at the time. However, hardly anyone had any idea how important iTunes would one day become. “Rip, Mix, Burn” was the slogan once chosen, iTunes turned the Mac into a media center (“Digital Hub”). iTunes has been enthusiastically received by users from the start. Overview, quick filtering and finding, easy import, easy burning – all of this was pretty unique.
At 50:40 the music strategy section begins
In October of the same year, Apple also delivered the appropriate hardware, namely the first iPod. Hardware and software complemented each other perfectly, which was one of the main reasons why the music player became such a success.
The first version of iTunes
The following years: iTunes Music Store, Windows, series, films
From now on it happened quickly. 2003 was accompanied by two major announcements: Apple launched the iTunes Music Store integrated into iTunes and iTunes for Windows. The software became more and more important and was no longer considered just one Apple app among many. Other media genres were to follow, as from 2005 there were podcasts and TV series, and from 2006 the first feature films.
2008: and then even apps
If you’re looking for a time when Apple may have taken a wrong turn with iTunes, 2008 might be an example. “We have a platform for selling digital content, why not sell iPhone apps on it?” was the decision. This may have seemed convenient for filling the iPhone with all sorts of content, but gradually more and more criticism arose about how overloaded (and increasingly lame) the once slim software had become. Perception began to change and the symptoms increased. Years followed in which Apple introduced more and more functions (including Genius, iTunes LP, Ping, iCloud, Mini Player, the iTunes Music streaming service).
2019: The turning point: the shutdown of iTunes on the Mac
During the presentation of macOS 10.15 Catalina, Craig Federighi personally joked about the possible further growth of the program. At the beginning they were “completely focused” on rip, mix, burn, so they concentrated on the main task: quick organization of the music library, quick search, easy synchronization, convenient CD burning. After music management, the iTunes Music Store was added with music purchases, podcasts, films and, in addition to iPod and iPhone synchronization, the App Store – but couldn’t iTunes do even more? To amuse the audience, Federighi listed Calendar (all appointments and the best songs in just one app!), Mail and Safari. How to switch between these areas? Of course, iTunes will get its own dock! Of course, this was just self-irony, because Apple had made the decision to split iTunes into individual, specialized programs per media genre. What had always been the case on the iPhone should also find its way onto the Mac.
iTunes section at 1:43:45
Conclusion: The (unconvincing) heirs of iTunes
What many had wanted for years, i.e. the split, caused a certain disillusionment. Unfortunately, this didn’t make things quick and clear, as the various apps are still of very mixed quality even years later. You often hear that Apple has ruined pretty much every single component of iTunes with this. The attempt to reinvent everything was often accompanied by the elimination of proven functions or poorer implementation of them. As it was once jokingly said in one of our editorial meetings: “We probably complained too much back then and didn’t know what we had!”. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a program as great today as iTunes was more than two decades ago?
