iTunes Store

For other uses, see iTunes (disambiguation).

iTunes Store

The iTunes Store, as seen in iTunes 12.2
Opened April 28, 2003 (2003-04-28)
Pricing model Free streaming available on any device
Platforms OS X, iOS, Windows
Format Unprotected AAC (.m4a) @ 256 kbit/s (music), protected AAC (.m4p) @ 32, 64 and 128 kbit/s (audiobooks), unprotected MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) (music videos), protected MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) (other video)
Restrictions (Protected) Music: streaming to five computers every 24 hours, unlimited CDs (seven with an unchanged playlist), unlimited iPods and iPhones.
Catalogue 37,000,000+ songs worldwide, 1,000,000+ podcasts (US), 40,000+ music videos (US), 3,000+ TV shows (US), 20,000+ audiobooks (US), 45,000+ movies (US), 1,000,000+ App Store apps[1]
Preview 30–90 seconds (music, TV, videos, audiobooks, movies) available for free
Streaming Yes
Protocol iTunes Music Store Protocol (itms://)
Availability See Internationalization
Features Allowance, "Just For You", Celebrity Playlists, gift certificates and gift cards, iMix, billboard charts, advanced search
Website www.apple.com/itunes/

The iTunes Store, originally the iTunes Music Store, is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, and has been the largest music vendor in the United States since April 2008,[2] and the largest music vendor in the world since February 2010.[3] It offers over 43 million songs, 700,000 apps, 190,000 TV episodes and 45,000 films as of September 12, 2012.[1] The iTunes Store's revenues in the first quarter of 2011 totalled nearly US$1.4 billion;[4] by February 6, 2013, the store had sold 25 billion songs worldwide.[5][6]

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.[7] Full iTunes Plus availability was achieved in the US on April 7, 2009, coinciding with the introduction of a three-tiered pricing model;[8] however, television episodes, many books, and films are still FairPlay-protected. As of June 2013, the iTunes Store possesses 575 million active user accounts,[9] and serves over 315 million mobile devices, including Apple Watches, iPods, iPhones, Apple TV and iPads.[10][11]

History

Before the iTunes Store, most of the online music was download through websites like Napster.[12][13] Steve Jobs expressed concern that people were illegally obtaining music because it was the only option they had. In 2002, Steve Jobs made an agreement with the five major record labels to offer their content through iTunes.[14] The iTunes Store was introduced by Steve Jobs at a Worldwide Developer's Conference to give music listeners a legal alternative to peer-to-peer file sharing networks.[15] When it opened, it was the only legal digital catalog of music to offer songs from all five major record labels.[14] At first, it was only available on Mac OS and the iPod.[16]

Features and restrictions

Pricing model

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.

Feature-length movies and episodes of television series are also available for purchase. Movies tend to be priced above a DVD of the same film (price varies, but usually $9.99–$19.99 for new and discounted releases) while television episodes ($1.99 standard definition, $2.99 HD) are approximately double the cost of a song (free, 69¢, 99¢, or $1.29). Ringtones are $1.29 each, while alert tones are 99¢ each.

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.[17]

At the Macworld 2008 keynote, Steve Jobs, who was Apple's CEO at the time, announced iTunes movie rentals.[18] Movies are available for rent in the iTunes Store on the same day they are released on DVD,[19] though the iTunes Store also offers for rental some movies that are still in theaters. Movie rentals are only viewable for 24 hours 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 and Australia.

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.[20] 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.[21] In 2015, Apple discontinued the "Single of the Week" program.[22]

iTunes Store for iOS

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.[23] Apple offers three apps, each of which provides access to certain types of content.

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

Originally, mobile users had to be connected to a Wi-Fi network in order to enter the store, hence its original name: the 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 MB.[24] 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.,[25] And in Late 2013, Apple increased The limit to 100 MB when released the final version of iOS 7 with the new iPhones.[26]

Customer support

In the United States, Apple provides technical support for the iTunes Store via email, there is no phone number for issues with iTunes purchases.[27] Most customer service inquiries are handled online, via the Report a Problem link in the iTunes application.[28]

Charitable donations

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 organisations through this system are not subject to the 30% handling fee Apple usually charges.[29] iTunes donation pages were set up following the 2010 Haiti earthquake,[30] the 2011 Japanese earthquake and ensuing tsunami,[31] and 2012's Hurricane Sandy.[29] In all of these cases, donations were redirected to the Red Cross.

Music

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

As of 2014, the iTunes Store offers more than 37,000,000 songs,[1][32] 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 the 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

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. 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 & 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 only available for album download only which are Rock Me In and Phonography.

"Work Only" songs

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.

Store Sections

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 is in Spanish as well as several sub-categories. Gibraltarian Flamenco Metal 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.

Censorship

There is a policy of censoring profanity in titles on iTunes.[33] This has resulted in a Scunthorpe glitch, by which inoffensive titles are censored due to a coincidental string of letters.[34] 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

Sales of iTunes songs, 2003—2010.

Since its launch, the iTunes Store has crossed many milestones. In the first 18 hours, the store sold about 275,000 tracks and more than 1,000,000 in its first 5 days. When released for Windows in October 2003, iTunes was downloaded more than 1,000,000 times in the first 3 days, selling more than 1,000,000 songs in that period. On December 15, 2003, Apple announced that it had sold 25 million songs.

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 the 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.[35]

On April 28, 2004, the iTunes Music Store marked its first anniversary with 70 million songs sold, clear dominance in the paid online music market and a slight profit.[36] 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, the iTunes Music Store was the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs.[37] Also, the iTunes Music Store at that point maintained a 70 percent market share of legal music downloads.

The emerging monopoly of the store has been criticized 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.[38]

Aggregators

Aggregators (in reference to iTunes) are digital distribution companies capable of delivering digital content to the iTunes Store. The iTunes Store subsequently has four divisions of content: Music, Video, eBooks, and Apps. Each type of content is delivered in a separate way.

Music aggregators

Sales milestones

Music

  • 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.)[39]
  • 125 million songs sold: September 1, 2004[40]
  • 150 million songs sold: October 14, 2004[41]
  • 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 set The Complete U2.)[42]
  • 250 million songs sold: January 24, 2005[43]
  • 300 million songs sold: March 2, 2005[44]
  • 400 million songs sold: May 10, 2005[45]

On July 5, 2005, Apple announced a promotion counting down to half a billion songs sold.[46]

  • 500 million songs sold: July 18, 2005
(Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, bought the 500 millionth song, "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill.)[47]
  • 850 million songs sold: January 10, 2006[48]
  • 1 billion songs sold: February 23, 2006
(Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan, bought the billionth song, "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay.[49] 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.)[39]
  • 1.5 billion songs sold: September 12, 2006[50]
  • 2 billion songs sold: January 10, 2007[50]
  • 2.5 billion songs sold: April 9, 2007[51]
  • 3 billion songs sold: July 31, 2007[52]
  • 4 billion songs sold: January 15, 2008
  • 5 billion songs sold: June 19, 2008[53]
  • 6 billion songs sold: January 6, 2009[54]
  • 8 billion songs sold: July 21, 2009
  • 8.6 billion songs sold: September 9, 2009
  • 10 billion songs sold: February 24, 2010[55]
(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.)[56]
  • 15 billion songs sold: June 6, 2011[57]
  • 20 billion songs sold: September 12, 2012[58]
  • 25 billion songs sold: February 6, 2013[5]
  • 35 billion songs sold: May 28, 2014[59]

Video

  • 1 million videos sold: October 31, 2005[60]
  • 3+ million videos sold: December 6, 2005[61]
  • 8 million videos sold: January 10, 2006[48]
  • 15 million videos sold: February 23, 2006[49]
  • 45 million videos sold: September 12, 2006[50]
  • 50 million television episodes sold: January 10, 2007[50]
  • 1.3 million feature-length films sold: January 10, 2007[50]
  • 2 million feature-length films sold: July 31, 2007[62]
  • 200 million television episodes sold: October 16, 2008[63]
  • 1+ million HD episodes sold: October 16, 2008[63]

Applications

  • 10 million apps downloaded: July 14, 2008[64]
  • 100 million apps downloaded: September 9, 2008[65]
  • 200 million apps downloaded: October 22, 2008[66]
  • 300 million apps downloaded: December 5, 2008[67]
  • 500 million apps downloaded: January 16, 2009[68]
  • 800 million apps downloaded: March 17, 2009[69]
  • 1 billion apps downloaded: April 23, 2009[70]
  • 1.5 billion apps downloaded: July 14, 2009[71]
  • 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[72]
  • 15 billion apps downloaded: July 7, 2011[73]
  • 25 billion apps downloaded: March 5, 2012[11]
  • 30 billion apps downloaded: June 11, 2012[74]
  • 35 billion apps downloaded: October 23, 2012[75]
  • 40 billion apps downloaded: January 7, 2013[76]
  • 50 billion apps downloaded: May 16, 2013
  • 60 billion apps downloaded: October 22, 2013
  • 75 billion apps downloaded: June 2, 2014[77]
  • 100 billion apps downloaded: June 8, 2015[78]

Market share

  • On September 12, 2006, Steve Jobs announced in his "It's Showtime" keynote that Apple had 88% of the legal US music download market.[50]
  • 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.[62]
  • On February 26, 2008, the iTunes Store surpassed Best Buy to become the second-largest music vendor in the US behind Wal-Mart, and became number one on April 3, 2008.[2]
  • 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.[79]

Internationalization

Originally only Mac OS X users who had credit cards with 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 the 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:

Country Product type Affiliate program[80] Price/song
Music[81] Music Videos[81] Podcasts[81] TV shows[81] Movies[81] Apps[81] Books[81] iTunes Match[82] iTunes U[81] iTunes Radio[82]
United States April 28, 2003 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
United Kingdom June 15, 2004 Yes Yes Yes June 4, 2008 Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.59 – 0.99 GBP
(0.91 – 1.53 USD)[84]
France June 15, 2004 Yes Yes Yes April 30, 2009 Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Germany June 15, 2004 Yes Yes April 2, 2008[85] April 16, 2009[86] Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Austria October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes April 30, 2012[87]Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Belgium October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Finland October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 9, 2013 Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Greece October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes April 30, 2012[87] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Italy October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes April 30, 2012[87] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Luxembourg October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Netherlands October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No September 27, 2011[88] Yes Yes January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Portugal October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes April 30, 2012[87] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Spain October 26, 2004 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Canada December 3, 2004 Yes Yes Yes June 4, 2008 Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 CAD
(0.67 – 1.25 USD)[84]
Ireland January 6, 2005 Yes Yes No April 30, 2009 Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Sweden May 10, 2005 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 9, 2013 Yes No Yes 9 – 12 SEK
(1.25 – 1.67 USD)[84]
Norway May 10, 2005 No Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 9, 2013 Yes No Yes 8 – 10 NOK
(1.32 – 1.66 USD)[84]
Switzerland May 10, 2005 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 1.60 – 2.20 CHF
(1.53 – 2.11 USD)[84]
Denmark May 10, 2005 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 9, 2013 Yes No Yes 8 – 10 DKK
(1.52 – 1.90 USD)[84]
Japan August 4, 2005[90] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes March 6, 2013[91] May 2, 2014 Yes No Yes 150 – 250 JPY
(1.81 – 3.02 USD)[84]
Australia October 25, 2005 October 25, 2005 Yes June 24, 2008[92] August 14, 2008 Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes February 11, 2014[93] Yes 1.19 – 2.19 AUD
(1.28 – 2.35 USD)[84]
New Zealand December 6, 2005[94] Yes Yes No August 14, 2008 Yes October 22, 2012[95] December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 1.79 – 2.39 NZD
(1.47 – 1.96 USD)[84]
Mexico August 4, 2009[96] Yes Yes No November 9, 2010[97] Yes October 22, 2012[95] December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 9 – 15 MXN
(0.71 – 1.19 USD)[84]
Bulgaria September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes April 30, 2012[87] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Cyprus September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Czech Republic September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Estonia September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Hungary September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes July 19, 2012[99] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Latvia September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Lithuania September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Malta September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes December 15, 2011[83] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Poland September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes July 19, 2012[99] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Romania September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Slovenia September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes April 30, 2012[87] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Slovakia September 29, 2011[98] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 EUR
(0.92 – 1.72 USD)[84]
Argentina December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Brazil December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] December 13, 2011 Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Bolivia December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Chile December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Colombia December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Costa Rica December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Dominican Republic December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Ecuador December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
El Salvador December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Guatemala December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Honduras December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Nicaragua December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Panama December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Paraguay December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Peru December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Venezuela December 13, 2011[100] Yes Yes No December 13, 2011[100] Yes October 22, 2012[95] January 16, 2012[89] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Brunei June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Cambodia June 27, 2012[101] Yes June 21, 2012 No June 27, 2012[101] June 21, 2012[102] free books June 27, 2012[101] June 21, 2012 No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Hong Kong June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free booksJune 27, 2012[101]Yes No Yes 5 – 8 HKD
Laos June 27, 2012[101] Yes June 21, 2012 No June 27, 2012[101] June 21, 2012[102]free books June 27, 2012[101] June 21, 2012 No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Macao June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Malaysia June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Philippines June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Singapore June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 0.98 – 1.48 SGD
Sri Lanka June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Taiwan June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 15 – 30 TWD
Thailand June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Vietnam June 27, 2012[101] Yes Yes No June 27, 2012[101] Yes free books June 27, 2012[101] Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Anguilla December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Antigua and Barbuda December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Armenia December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Azerbaijan December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Bahamas December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Bahrain December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Barbados December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Belarus December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 USD
Belize December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Bermuda December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Botswana December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Burkina Faso December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
British Virgin Islands December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Cape Verde December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Cayman Islands December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Dominica December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Egypt December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Fiji December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012 Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Gambia December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Ghana December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Grenada December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Guinea-Bissau December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
India December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 4, 2012[103] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes 9–15 INR
(0.18 – 0.30 USD)
Indonesia December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 4, 2012[103] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes 5000 – 7000 IDR
Israel December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes 1.90 – 3.90 NIS
Jordan December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Kazakhstan December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Kenya December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Kyrgyzstan December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Lebanon December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Mauritius December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Federated States of Micronesia December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Republic of Moldova December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Mongolia December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Mozambique December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Namibia December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Nepal December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Niger December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Nigeria December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Oman December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Papua New Guinea December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Qatar December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Russia December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] April 21, 2008 No December 4, 2012[103] April 21, 2008[105] free books Yes April 21, 2008 No Yes 15 – 19 RUB (0.49 – 0.62 USD)
Saint Kitts and Nevis December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Saudi Arabia December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
South Africa December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Swaziland December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Trinidad and Tobago December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Turkey December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 4, 2012[103] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes 0.69 – 1.29 TRY
Tajikistan December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Turkmenistan December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Uganda December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Ukraine December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
United Arab Emirates December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Uzbekistan December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No No Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Zimbabwe December 4, 2012[103] December 4, 2012[103] Yes No December 12, 2012[104] Yes free books Yes Yes No Yes N/A
Albania No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Algeria No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Angola No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Benin No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Bhutan No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Chad No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No No N/A
China No No Yes No September 30, 2015[106] Yes September 30, 2015[106] No Yes No No N/A
Republic of the Congo No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No No N/A
Croatia No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Guyana No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Iceland No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Jamaica No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Korea, South No No Yes No No June 10, 2008 free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Kuwait No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Liberia No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No No N/A
Macedonia No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Madagascar No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No No N/A
Malawi No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Mali No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No No N/A
Mauritania No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No No N/A
Montserrat No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Pakistan No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Palau No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Saint Lucia No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
São Tomé and Príncipe No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Senegal No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No No N/A
Seychelles No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Sierra Leone No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Solomon Islands No No June 21, 2012 No No June 21, 2012[102] free books No June 21, 2012 No Yes N/A
Suriname No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Tanzania No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Tunisia No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Turks and Caicos Islands No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Uruguay No No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Yemen Yes No Yes No No Yes free books No Yes No Yes N/A
Country Music Music Videos Podcasts TV shows Movies Apps Books iTunes Match iTunes U iTunes Radio Affiliate program Price/song
Product type
The countries where iTunes Store is available are shown in green.

To buy files through the store, a user must install the proprietary digital media player iTunes to access the store. This software is available only for certain versions of the Macintosh or Windows operating systems.

iTunes Store availability. Green: full functionality (music, apps, videos, etc.) Red: available, but with limitations (only apps, iTunes U, etc.)

Payment options

A user must also pay with an iTunes gift card or a credit card with a billing address in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Bulgaria, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United States or Vietnam. Apple also offers other payment methods (like Paypal), which differ from country to country. Residents in other countries can only buy a gift card from a merchant or download free podcasts and previews.

File formats

Originally, songs were encoded using FairPlay-encrypted 128 kbit/s AAC streams in an mp4 wrapper, using the .m4p extension. While licenses to the AAC compression and the mp4 file format are readily available, Apple generally has not licensed its proprietary FairPlay encryption scheme to other mobile device manufacturers, so only devices from Apple are able to play the FairPlay-encrypted songs sold at the iTunes Store. The only exceptions were three mobile phones sold by Motorola in the years 2005–6: the Motorola ROKR E1, the Motorola RAZR V3i, and the Motorola SLVR L7.

Apple offers digital booklets with some albums in PDF format. These can be viewed in iTunes, or, on iOS, can be added to the iBooks app and viewed there.

From May 29, 2007, tracks on the EMI label were made available in a DRM-less format called iTunes Plus. These files are unprotected and are encoded in the AAC format at 256 kbit/s, twice the bitrate of standard tracks bought through the service. They are labelled as "purchased AAC audio file" (.m4a) rather than "protected AAC audio file" (.m4p) in iTunes.

In January 2009, Apple announced that all music would be available in the iTunes Plus format, bringing an end to the sale of music with DRM on iTunes. In April 2009, the sale of protected music ended in western versions of the store, making all music in the iTunes Store "iTunes Plus." iTunes Store users may choose to "upgrade" any of their downloaded iTunes music to iTunes Plus if they wish, but most songs require payment to do so. FairPlay DRM-protected music was still available in the Japanese iTunes store, up until February 22, 2012, when they upgraded to the iTunes Plus model.[112]

In September 2009, Apple introduced the iTunes LP format (known pre-launch by the code name "Cocktail")[113] which features visual, interactive content alongside album tracks and lyrics.

Digital rights management

A fifth-generation iPod with earphones. The only portable devices licensed to play protected music from the iTunes Store are iPods, the iPhone, the iPod Touch, the iPad and selected Motorola mobile phones, such as the ROKR.

Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) is integrated into iTunes, which manages songs purchased in the m4p file format from iTunes Store before January 2009. iTunes relies on FairPlay to implement three main restrictions:

There are no restrictions on number of iPods to which a purchased song can be transferred nor the number of times any individual song can be burned to CD.

When Apple initially introduced FairPlay, songs purchased through iTunes had limits of three simultaneous machines and ten CD copies of a playlist. The adjustment to the current limits was implemented with the introduction of iTunes 4.5 in April 2004, presumably as the result of re-negotiations Apple had with major labels.

Apple's DRM technology is breakable. Various programs have been written to remove the FairPlay wrapper and allow the AAC files to be used without technological restriction. More simply, a user can convert protected files to an unprotected format by using iTunes to burn them to an audio CD and ripping the CD back to iTunes. If the CD is ripped back to iTunes in a lossy format, some audio quality will be lost in this transcoding. An alternative way of transcoding the files is to record the "Wave Out Mix" using an audio recording program (such as Audacity or Audio Hijack Pro) while playing the song on iTunes—and then encoding it to a format of the user's choice.

Competitors accused Apple of using the iPod, the iTunes Store, and FairPlay to establish a vertical monopoly and a lock-in for iPod users to use the iTunes Store exclusively (and vice versa). This "lock" had two aspects:

In July 2004, RealNetworks debuted an application named Harmony, which converted files purchased from RealNetworks' RealRhapsody service into a FairPlay-compatible format that an iPod could play. In response, Apple accused RealNetworks of "adopting the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod."[114] and released a firmware upgrade that rendered iPods incapable of playing such files. On January 3, 2005, an iTunes Music Store customer sued Apple, alleging the company broke US antitrust laws by freezing out competitors.[115]

In 2006, a controversy erupted about a French draft law aimed at reinforcing the protection of works of art against "piracy", or illegal copying; some clauses of the law could possibly be used to request Apple to provide information about its FairPlay system to manufacturers of competing players. Apple and associated lobbying groups protested the draft law, going as far as to suggest that it condoned "state-sponsored piracy."

Movement against DRM

On February 6, 2007, Steve Jobs called on the Big Four record labels to allow their music to be sold DRM-free.[116] This approach was advocated by the Open Music Model as being revenue maximizing. On April 2, 2007, Apple and the record label EMI announced that the iTunes Store would begin offering, as an additional purchasing option, tracks from EMI's catalog encoded as 256 kbit/s AAC without FairPlay or any other DRM.

On May 29, 2007, Apple released version 7.2 of its iTunes software, allowing users to purchase DRM-free music and music videos from participating labels. These new files, available through the iTunes Store, have been called iTunes Plus music by Apple. iTunes Plus content was offered at a higher price than the DRM-protected versions of the same content.

In October 2007, iTunes Plus became automatic instead of optional for all iTunes Plus licensed content. In addition, the price of iTunes Plus reverted to the lower DRM price.

Almost immediately after the launch of iTunes Plus, reports surfaced that the DRM-free tracks sold by the iTunes Store contained identifying information about the customer, embedding the purchasing account's full name and e-mail address as metadata in the file. This information has always been in iTunes downloads both with and without FairPlay DRM.. Privacy groups expressed concerns that this data could be misused if possessions carrying the files were stolen, and potentially wrongly incriminate a user for copyright infringement.[117]

On January 6, 2009 at the Macworld Expo, Apple announced a significant overhaul of the iTunes Plus catalog with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI offering all their music in iTunes Plus immediately. As of the announcement, 8 million songs were available in Apple's DRM-free format. As of April 2009, all songs became available in the iTunes Plus format, except from the Japanese iTunes Store; the Japanese store would not undergo full conversion until February 22, 2012.[118]

Promotions

On Super Bowl Sunday, February 1, 2004, Apple launched a promotion with Pepsi in which they gave away 100 million songs, through tokens on selected soft drink bottle caps. Unfortunately for Apple, Pepsi failed to properly distribute the bottles to major metropolitan areas until only weeks before the promotion ended, despite a one-month extension of the deadline by Apple. The promotion was repeated beginning January 31, 2005, with 200 million songs available, and an iPod Mini given away every hour.

On July 1, 2004, Apple announced that, starting with the sale of the 95 millionth song, an iPod would be given away to the buyer of each 100 thousandth song, for a total of 50 iPods. The buyer of the 100 millionth song would receive a PowerBook, iPod, and US$10,000 gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store.

Ten days later, on July 11, Apple announced that 100 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 100 millionth song was titled "Somersault (Dangermouse Remix)" by Zero 7, purchased by Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas. He then received a phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who offered his congratulations, as well as a 40 GB 3rd Generation iPod laser-engraved with a message of thanks.

Inspired by Pepsi's marketing success with iTunes giveaways, Coca-Cola partnered with 7-Eleven to give away a free iTunes song with every 32 US fl oz (950 ml). Slurpee frozen beverage until July 31, 2005. Songs could be redeemed until August 31, 2005 by entering a code printed on the Slurpee cup into the iTunes Music Store application. Coca-Cola did this in spite of having its own music store, myCokeMusic.com, that competed with the iTunes Music Store in Europe. myCokeMusic.com ceased business on July 31, 2006.[119]

On July 5, 2005, Apple announced that they were counting down to half a billion songs. The buyer of every 100 thousandth song up to 500 million would receive an iPod Mini and a 50-song gift card. The grand prize for the person who downloads the 500 millionth song was 10 iPods of their choice, a 10,000-song gift card, 10 50-song gift cards or 4 tickets to the Coldplay world tour. Twelve days later, on July 17, Apple announced that 500 million songs had been sold through the iTunes Music Store. The 500 millionth song, purchased by Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana, was "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill.

On July 28, 2005, Apple and The Gap announced a promotion to award iTunes music downloads to Gap customers who tried on a pair of Gap jeans.[120] From August 8 to 31, 2005, each customer who tried on any pair of Gap jeans could receive a free download for a song of their choice from the iTunes Music Store.

On February 7, 2006, Apple announced that they were counting down to the billionth song download and began a promotion similar to the previous 100 million and 500 million countdown. Whoever downloaded the billionth song would receive a 20" iMac, ten 60 GB iPods, and a US$10,000 iTunes Music Card. The billionth song was purchased on February 23, 2006 by Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan. The purchased song was "Speed of Sound" as part of Coldplay's X&Y album.

On July 25, 2006, Facebook and iTunes began offering a promotion where members of the Apple Students group would receive a free 25 song sampler each week until September 30 in various music genres. The idea behind the promotion was to get students more familiar and enthusiastic with each service as Autumn classes approached.[121] However, in order to prevent abuse of the promotion, the weekly code that Facebook provided stopped working after it was redeemed one million times. In addition, the promotion caused discontent among international students, as the code was only valid in the US iTunes Music Store.

On April 10, 2009, Apple announced that it will be counting down to the billionth app. Apps being the applications for iPod Touch and iPhone. Launching a counter that is constantly running on Good Friday, Apple starting counting down.[70] Connor Mulcahey, age 13 of Weston, CT, downloaded the billionth app, "Bump" by Bump Technologies, and received a 17" Macbook Pro, a 32GB iPod Touch, a Time Capsule, and a $10,000 Gift Card for the iTunes Store.

On February 11, 2010 Apple announced that it would be counting down to 10 billion songs downloaded. A$10,000 gift card was offered as a prize. On February 24, 2010, the 10 billionth song, "Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash, was purchased by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia.[122]

Other platforms

Currently, iTunes is supported on the Mac OS X (Leopard and above) and Microsoft Windows operating systems. iTunes was known to run passably well in Linux on x86-based computers using the Wine compatibility layer; however, by December 2011, this was no longer the case.[123] Users without iTunes installed can see a content database (but not hear or view the content itself) using the iTunes Preview service, which runs inside their internet browser. This service also allows users to watch trailers for upcoming film releases. Should they choose to purchase any media, they will be redirected to the iTunes application.

Technical details

Store pages are delivered using standard HTML with a special header. This change was made when iTunes 9.0 was released. iTunes uses WebKit to render these pages on the screen.[124] These pages are also accessible on the Web, at itunes.apple.com, allowing pages from the iTunes Store to show up in search engine search results.

Prior to iTunes 9.0, the iTunes Store was delivered using a custom XML format that describes the position of all of the elements, boxes, album art and all of their properties – including whether a reference link can be dragged out of iTunes and into another document.

The store's back-end software uses WebObjects – Apple's own application server it acquired from NeXT. Content is uploaded to the iTunes data store using an internal Apple program called iTunes Producer, which automatically encodes and adds metadata to uploaded files.

Legal disputes

Main article: Apple Inc. litigation

Apple records

For three years, The Beatles' record company Apple Records were in a legal dispute, Apple Corps v Apple Computer, with Apple Computer over the name "Apple." On May 8, 2006, a ruling was declared in favor of Apple Computer, but Apple Records said it would appeal the ruling. Despite this, plans were announced by Neil Aspinall in April 2006 to remaster completely and release the entire Beatles catalog on an unspecified online music service, as well as release some previously unheard work by the band. No date was set at that time.[125] It has also been reported that the Beatles' music catalog might initially be appearing on iTunes only, as Apple is reported to be negotiating with Britain's EMI group over an online distribution deal that might be exclusive for a limited time.[126]

During his January 9, 2007 Macworld Keynote address, Apple CEO Steve Jobs used the band's song "Lovely Rita" to introduce the music-playing capabilities of the company's new iPhone. This was regarded by industry observers as further evidence that the Beatles catalog would be introduced to the iTunes Music Store catalog in the near future.[127] On February 5, 2007, Apple Corps and Apple Inc. announced they had reached a settlement in their legal dispute.[128]

In a related development, Apple announced on August 14, 2007 that the entire solo catalog of John Lennon would be available on iTunes.[129] The solo catalogs of the other three Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, are also available on iTunes.

On November 16, 2010, the entire Beatles catalog was officially made available on the iTunes Store.

The Consumer Council of Norway EULA challenge

On June 6, 2006, The Consumer Ombudsmen in Norway, Sweden and Denmark launched a common open letter to Apple regarding the EULA of iTunes through the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon.[130] The iTunes case is based upon an official complaint[131] filed by The Consumer Council of Norway on January 25, 2006.

The main allegations were that:

Apple responded July 31, 2006.[132]

On January 22, 2007, German and French consumer groups joined forces with Norway and Finland.[133][134] Their goal is to create a united European front against iTunes (Germany and France have each had their own negotiation process with iTunes). According to the press statement Apple is in favor of this. The key points in the negotiations were:

EU anti-trust case

In 2004, Which? magazine complained to the European Commission about the higher prices in the UK for the same songs sold in the European Union: typically 0.99 euro in the EU and £0.79 in the UK.[135] In 2008, the Commission withdrew its investigation after Apple agreed to end the price disparity.[135]

Content disputes

Universal Music Group

On July 1, 2007, the New York Times reported[136] that Universal (currently the world's largest music corporation) would not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes. Instead, Universal said that it would market music to Apple at will, allowing it to remove its songs from the iTunes service on short notice if the two sides did not agree on pricing or other terms.

On August 9, 2007, UMG announced a plan to sell some songs in MP3 format, without Digital rights management, through a variety of online services such as Amazon Music and the newly created gBox. While these tracks continue to be available through the iTunes Store, Universal chose to license these songs in DRM-free formats only through other services.[137]

NBC Universal TV series

On August 31, 2007, Apple announced that programs on NBC's 2007–08 television schedule would not be available on iTunes.[138] NBC had informed Apple the previous day that it would not be renewing its contract.[139] It was later clarified that this change only applied to series produced by NBC Universal-owned Universal Media Studios, including Universal-produced shows on other networks such as House. NBC programs produced by other studios, such as Chuck (Warner Bros.) and Journeyman (20th Century Fox), would remain available on iTunes.[140]

Apple has publicly asserted that NBC would only renew their contract if Apple agreed to a price increase of US$4.99 per episode, which they did not. NBC disputes that claim, claiming that Apple balked at NBC's request to package shows together and make wholesale pricing more flexible.[141] NBC claims that they never asked to double the wholesale price and insisted that their shows would be sold by the iTunes Store through early December.[142] Other networks who sell their shows via iTunes did not follow suit. On December 1, 2007 NBC shows were pulled from iTunes.

On September 9, 2008, Apple and NBC Universal announced that NBC's TV shows were once again available on the US iTunes Store.

The UK iTunes Store has many shows from NBC available, though they are distributed by Universal Studios. The pricing for these seasons are higher than they were on the US store, an example being, Season 3 of The Office is priced at UK£43.47 (roughly US$72) vs. $52.99 (US Store HD).

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Apple Unveils New iTunes". Apple. September 12, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "iTunes Store Top Music Retailer in the USA". Apple Inc. April 3, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Apple's iTunes serves up 10 billionth song download". Apple. February 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  4. ↑ Daniel Eran Dilger (April 21, 2011). "iTunes Store quietly generates record revenues of $1.4 billion". Apple Insider. AppleInsider. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  5. 1 2 "iTunes Store Sets New Record with 25 Billion Songs Sold". Apple Inc. February 6, 2013. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  6. ↑ "iTunes Store Sets New Record with 25 Billion Songs Sold". Apple Press Info. Apple, Inc. February 6, 2013. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Apple to end music restrictions". BBC News. January 7, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2010.
  8. ↑ "iTunes Store now infected with variable pricing, Amazon still $0.99". Engadget. April 7, 2009. Retrieved January 25, 2010.
  9. ↑ "The algebra of iTunes". CNN. June 15, 2013. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  10. ↑ "iPhone 5 announcement: 3 important things to watch". NineMSN.com.au. September 12, 2012.
  11. 1 2 Apple Inc. (March 5, 2012). "Apple's App Store Downloads Top 25 Billion". Retrieved May 10, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Steve Jobs on the iTunes Music Store: The Unpublished Interview". Technologizer by Harry McCracken. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  13. ↑ Brad Hill. "The iTunes influence, part one: How Apple changed the face of the music marketplace". Engadget. AOL. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  14. 1 2 Langer, Andy; Frampton, Scott (July 2003). "The God of Music?". Esquire 140 (1): 82. ISSN 0194-9535.
  15. ↑ "Steve Jobs’ Music Vision". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Apple - Press Info - Apple Launches the iTunes Music Store". Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  17. ↑ iOS Developer Program Website, Retrieved 2011– 08- 24 Apple Inc.
  18. ↑ "Macworld: New iPhone Software, iTunes Video Rentals, Updated AppleTV". About.com. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
  19. ↑ "AppleInsider, Apple Announces same day as DVD release iTunes movies sales". AppleInsider. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
  20. ↑ "Free iTunes Music". Free iTunes Music. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  21. ↑ "Free iTunes 2013 – MacRumors Forums". MacRumors. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  22. ↑ "It Seems Apple Has Ended Its 'Single of the Week' Promotion After 11 Years". Business Insider. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  23. ↑ "iPod touch Features". apple.com. Retrieved September 25, 2007.
  24. ↑ "Apple Ditches iTunes DRM, Adds Variable Prices, 3G Downloads". About.com. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
  25. ↑ "You Can Now Download iOS Apps Up to 50MB Over 3G (or 4G)". Gizmodo. March 7, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2012.
  26. ↑ "Apple ups limit of App Store downloads over cellular to 100MB". appleinsider.com. September 18, 2013.
  27. ↑ Kazmucha, Allyson. "Daily Tip: how to contact iTunes support with billing and account questions". Mobile Nations. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
  28. ↑ "iTunes Store Support: Customer Service". Apple Inc. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  29. 1 2 Kelly, Meghan (November 1, 2012). "Support Sandy victims by donating through iTunes and eBay". VentureBeat. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
  30. ↑ "iDonate: iTunes and the Haiti Earthquake". Current. January 15, 2010. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
  31. ↑ Olivarez-Giles, Nathan (March 13, 2011). "Apple iTunes accepting Red Cross donations for Japan quake and tsunami relief". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
  32. ↑ "Apple – iTunes". Apple Inc. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  33. ↑ The songs that are too rude for iTunes, Michael Cragg, The Guardian October 27, 2008 . Retrieved October 27, 2008.
  34. ↑ iTunes glitch censors song titles. BBC. October 24, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  35. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Downloads Top 50 Million Songs". Apple Inc. March 15, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  36. ↑ Markoff, John (April 29, 2004). "Apple Sells 70 Million Songs in First Year of ITunes Service". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 19, 2006. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  37. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Catalog Tops One Million Songs". Apple Inc. August 10, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  38. ↑ Farrell, Nick (October 6, 2011). "ITunes threatens music industry more than piracy". TechEYE.net. Retrieved October 18, 2011. The CEO of Miramax [Mike Lang] has warned that iTunes is more of a threat to Big Content than piracy. [...] He said the chokepoints in the distribution chain were when there isn't enough diversity in distribution, so there are intermediaries that end up totally controlling an industry. He added that another problem is the emergence of digital monopolies such as the one Apple has in the digital music business. [...] The music business is suffering because it allowed too few players to flog content, presumably fearful of their content being stolen. Encouraging Apple's iTunes at the expense of others is effectively strangling the industry, he said.
  39. 1 2 Levy, Steven (2006). The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
  40. ↑ "Apple Launches iTunes Affiliate Program". Apple Inc. September 1, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  41. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Downloads Top 150 Million Songs". Apple Inc. October 14, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  42. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Downloads Top 200 Million Songs". Apple Inc. December 16, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  43. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Downloads Top a Quarter Billion Songs". Apple Inc. January 24, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  44. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Downloads Surpass 300 Million". Apple Inc. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  45. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Launches in Denmark, Norway, Sweden & Switzerland". Apple Inc. May 10, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  46. ↑ "Apple Kicks Off iTunes Music Store Countdown to Half a Billion Songs". Apple Inc. July 5, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  47. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Downloads Top Half a Billion Songs". Apple Inc. July 18, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  48. 1 2 "Macworld '06: An overview of Apple's big day". Computerworld. Archived from the original on February 19, 2006. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  49. 1 2 "iTunes Music Store Downloads Top One Billion Songs". Apple Inc. February 23, 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2006.
  50. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "iTunes Store Tops Two Billion Songs". Apple Inc. January 9, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2007.
  51. ↑ "100 Million iPods Sold". Apple Inc. April 9, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
  52. ↑ "iTunes Store Tops Three Billion Songs". Apple Inc. July 31, 2007. Retrieved July 31, 2007.
  53. ↑ "iTunes Store Tops Over Five Billion Songs Sold". Apple. June 19, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  54. ↑ "iTunes Sells 6 Billion Songs, And Other Fun Stats From The Philnote". TechCrunch. January 6, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2009.
  55. ↑ "iTunes Store Tops 10 Billion Songs Sold". Apple. February 25, 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  56. ↑ "10 Billionth Song Sold by Apple's iTunes". ABC News. February 25, 2010. Archived from the original on March 1, 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  57. ↑ "Apple has now sold 15 billion iTunes songs". Digital Music News. June 6, 2011. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  58. ↑ "Apple Special Event". Apple Inc. September 12, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  59. ↑ Apple’s iTunes Store passes 35 billion songs sold milestone, iTunes Radio now has 40 million listeners
  60. ↑ "iTunes Music Store Sells One Million Videos in Less Than 20 Days". Apple Inc. October 31, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  61. ↑ "NBC Universal & Apple Offer New Primetime, Cable, Late-Night & Classic TV Shows on the iTunes Music Store". Apple Inc. December 6, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  62. 1 2 "Award-Winning MGM Films Now on the iTunes Store". Apple Inc. Retrieved April 12, 2007.
  63. 1 2 "ABC, CBS, FOX & NBC Offer Incredible Lineup of Programming in Stunning HD on the iTunes Store". Apple Inc. Retrieved October 16, 2008.
  64. ↑ "iPhone App Store Downloads Top 10 Million in First Weekend". Apple Inc. July 14, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2009.
  65. ↑ "App Store Downloads Top 100 Million Worldwide". Apple Inc. September 9, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
  66. ↑ "iPhone App Store continues to exceed iTunes song sales growth". AppleInsider. October 22, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
  67. ↑ "Apple Apps "Bubble" Talk Just That, As Downloads Soar". CNBC. December 5, 2008. Retrieved December 7, 2008.
  68. ↑ "The Little App Store That Could". CNBC. January 16, 2009. Retrieved January 16, 2009.
  69. ↑ "App Store: 25 000 apps, 800 million downloads". VentureBeat. March 17, 2009. Retrieved March 25, 2009.
  70. 1 2 "iTunes – Thanks a Billion". Apple. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  71. ↑ "Apple's App Store Downloads Top 1.5 Billion in First Year". Apple Inc. July 14, 2009. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  72. ↑ "Apple App Store hits more than 10 billion Apps downloads".
  73. ↑ "Apple's App Store Downloads Top 15 Billion".
  74. ↑ CNET (June 11, 2012). "Apple: 30B apps downloaded, 400M App Store accounts set up". Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  75. ↑ 9to5Mac (October 23, 2012). "Apple by the numbers". Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  76. ↑ Apple Inc. (January 7, 2013). "App Store Tops 40 Billion Downloads with Almost Half in 2012". Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  77. ↑ Perez, Sarah (June 2, 2014). "iTunes App Store Now Has 1.2 Million Apps, Has Seen 75 Billion Downloads To Date". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  78. ↑ Ingraham, Nathan (June 9, 2015). "Apple's App Store has passed 100 billion app downloads". The Verge. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  79. ↑ "iTunes Dominates Download Market & Streaming Audio Grows". CEPro.com. October 10, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
  80. ↑ "iTunes, App Store, iBooks, and Mac App Store Affiliate Resources – Available Countries and Regions". Retrieved October 27, 2013.
  81. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "iTunes Store: Which types of items can I buy in my country?". Apple. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  82. 1 2 "iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, & iTunes Radio Availability". Apple. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  83. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Slivka, Eric (December 16, 2011). "Apple Temporarily Halts New iTunes Match Subscriptions in New International Markets". MacRumors. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  84. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 "Average for USD in multiple currencies for Jan 2010 to Dec 2010". Retrieved January 3, 2011.
  85. ↑ "iTunes nun mit Serien-Downloads auch in Deutschland" (in German). PCWelt.de. April 2, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2013.
  86. ↑ Apple iTunes Deutschland nun mit HD-Filmen zum Ausleihen auf HDTVTotal.com
  87. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Heath, Alex (April 30, 2012). "iTunes Match Rolling Out To More Countries, Now Available in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Austria". Cult of Mac. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  88. ↑ "(from Dutch) Breaking Movies have appeared in the Dutch iTunes Store". September 27, 2011.
  89. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Slivka, Eric (January 16, 2012). "iTunes Match Launches in 19 New Countries: Latin America, Baltics, Netherlands". MacRumors. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  90. 1 2 "Apple Launches iTunes Music Store in Japan". Apple Inc. August 4, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  91. ↑ "Apple – Press Info – Apple Launches iBookstore in Japan". Apple Inc. March 6, 2013. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  92. ↑ "Award-Winning Television Programming Now Available on the iTunes Store in Australia". Apple Inc. June 25, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
  93. ↑ "Apple makes Australia the second country to get iTunes Radio". The Australian. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  94. ↑ "Apple Launches iTunes & Online Apple Stores in New Zealand". Apple Inc. December 6, 2006. Retrieved December 6, 2006.
  95. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 "Paid iBookstore content now live in New Zealand, 17 other countries". Tuaw.com. October 22, 2012.
  96. ↑ "iTunes' Mexico launch could shake up digital market". Yahoo. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  97. ↑ "iTunes México – Movies". iTunes. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  98. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "iTunes store now available in Malta". The Times (Malta). September 29, 2011. Retrieved October 11, 2011.
  99. 1 2 Slivka, Eric (July 19, 2012). "iTunes Match Goes Live in Hungary and Poland". MacRumors. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  100. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 "Apple confirms iTunes Store launch in 15 Latin American countries and iTunes Match in Brazil". TNW.
  101. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 "Apple launches iTunes Store in 12 new Asian markets". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved June 27, 2012.
  102. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Slivka, Eric (June 21, 2012). "App Store Launches in 32 New Countries". MacRumors. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  103. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 "Apple Launches iTunes Store in Russia, Turkey, India, South Africa & 52 Additional Countries Today".
  104. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Slivka, Eric (December 12, 2012). "iTunes Store Movie Content Goes Live in 42 New Countries". MacRumors. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  105. ↑ "Один шаг до iPhone в России?" (in Russian). CNews.ru. April 6, 2008. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
  106. 1 2 "Apple Music launches in China, so don't forget to cancel trial membership". ComputerWorld. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  107. ↑ "iTunes Music Store in Europe Sells 800,000 Songs in First Week". Apple Inc. June 23, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  108. ↑ "Japan iTunes Music Store Sells One Million Songs in First Four Days". Apple Inc. July 8, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  109. ↑ "Apple inadvertently lights up New Zealand iTMS". Infinite Loop. Ars Technica. October 26, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  110. ↑ "Apple Announces iTunes Latino on the iTunes Store". Apple Inc. November 1, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2006.
  111. ↑ "iTunes Music Store llegará en agosto a México" (in Spanish). El Universal. June 30, 2009. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  112. ↑ "Japanese iTunes Store Enhancements: iTunes Plus, 3G Downloads, Ringtones, Complete My Album". Mac Rumors. February 22, 2012. Retrieved February 23, 2013.
  113. ↑ Rosoff, Matt (September 9, 2009). "New iTunes LP format is live". CNET. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  114. ↑ Bangeman, Eric (July 29, 2004). "Apple responds to RealNetworks FairPlay hack". Ars Technica. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  115. ↑ "Lawsuit claims Apple violates law with iTunes". News.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2006.
  116. ↑ "Thoughts on Music". Apple Inc. Retrieved February 7, 2007.
  117. ↑ Frith, David (June 12, 2007). "Privacy problem for iTunes Plus". Australian IT. Archived from the original on July 14, 2007. Retrieved June 3, 2008.
  118. ↑ "アップル、iTunes in the Cloudなどの新機能でiTunes Storeを強化 – ソニーの一部楽曲も取扱開始" (in Japanese). February 22, 2012. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  119. ↑ Charles Arthur (June 22, 2006). "Who benefits from the death of mycokemusic.com?". Guardian Unlimited (London). Retrieved February 19, 2007.
  120. ↑ "Jeans and Music – The Perfect Fit at Gap this Fall". Gap Inc. July 28, 2005. Retrieved February 17, 2007.
  121. ↑ Cheng, Jacqui (July 25, 2006). "Infinite Loop: Apple and Facebook partner up for back to school iTunes promo". Ars Technica.
  122. ↑ "Help iTunes reach 10 billion song downloads, and you could win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.". Retrieved February 11, 2010.
  123. ↑ "Wine Application DB – Viewing App – iTunes". winehq.org. Retrieved May 1, 2006.
  124. ↑ "iTunes 9, now with more WebKit". Will Norris. Retrieved September 12, 2009.
  125. ↑ "Beatles Catalog To Be Remastered, Offered Online". World Entertainment News Network. Starpulse. November 11, 2006. Retrieved December 17, 2006.
  126. ↑ Arungo, Tim (November 27, 2006). "Beatles: only on iPod?". Fortune. Retrieved December 17, 2006.
  127. ↑ "Apple teases fans with "Lovely Rita" — but no Beatles on iTunes". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  128. ↑ "Apple Inc. and The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd. Enter into New Agreement" (Press release). Apple Inc. February 5, 2007. Retrieved February 5, 2007.
  129. ↑ "John Lennon Solo Catalog Debuts on iTunes Store" (Press release). Apple Inc. August 14, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
  130. ↑ iTunes violates Norwegian law, Homepage Forbrukerombudet Norway
  131. ↑ "iTunes' questionable terms and conditions". Forbrukerportalen. January 25, 2006. Archived from the original on February 8, 2007. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  132. ↑ Apple response, Simonsen Advokatfirma DA (PDF)
  133. ↑ European consumer organisations join forces in legal dispute over iTunes Music Store. CNN. Retrieved on January 28, 2007.
  134. ↑ European drive against iTunes builds support. Homepage Forbrukerombudet Norway
  135. 1 2 "Apple cuts UK iTunes prices". The Register. January 9, 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  136. ↑ Universal in Dispute With Apple Over iTunes
  137. ↑ Aughton, Simon (August 13, 2007). "gBox – Not Google – has DRM-free Universal deal". PC Pro. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007. Retrieved August 13, 2007.
  138. ↑ "iTunes Store To Stop Selling NBC Television Shows". Apple Inc. August 31, 2007.
  139. ↑ Barnes, Brooks (August 31, 2007). "NBC Will Not Renew ITunes Contract". The New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2007.
  140. ↑ New Episodes of Fox's House Won't Be on iTunes, Broadcasting & Cable, October 1, 2007.
  141. ↑ Fritz, Ben (August 31, 2007). "iTunes drops NBC's new fall shows". Variety. Retrieved September 3, 2007.
  142. ↑ "NBCU's Response: Never Asked To Double Price; Shows Will Be On iTunes Through Early December". August 31, 2007.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, January 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.