This is an old article, appearing on the 10-year anniversary of the iTunes Music Store, but given the big changes Apple has announced for macOS Catalina, including a complete iTunes revamp, seemed appropriate.
A great read. Here’s a taste:
In its first week, iTunes sold one million downloads and soon became not only the top online music retailer but, displacing Walmart and Best Buy, the top music retailer. In a way, the service hastened the revolution that record executives feared the most – it shifted the business from expensive, high-revenue CDs to cheap, low-revenue singles. But there was no choice. There would always be online music thieves, but most consumers simply needed an easy, legal way to download songs. This was how fans would buy music in the future, whether the record industry liked it or not.
Jobs had incredible vision. Not sure anyone else could have pulled this off.
Steve jobs threw the music industry into chaos. And much like the French Revolution, the aftermath was populated by the same tired players while giving the proletariat the illusion of freedom.
Jobs snlehandely took away the ability for musicians to make money selling their physical price by devaluing to an arbitrary number.
no one can make money anymore.
Thanks steve jobs.