iTunes Music Store Launches April 28, 2003: 99-Cent Songs

Apple opened the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, offering more than 200,000 songs from all five major record companies for 99 cents each. There was no subscription and no monthly fee: buyers paid for each track, downloaded it into Apple’s iTunes software and could copy it to an iPod. The store sold more than 1 million songs in its first week, and within seven years it had sold 10 billion.

What Apple Launched in April 2003

The iTunes Music Store opened inside iTunes 4, a free update to Apple’s music software for Mac OS X. At launch it was limited to Mac users with a credit card billed to a US address, and it required Mac OS X version 10.1.5 or later.

The terms were simple:

Feature	iTunes Music Store at launch
Price	99 cents per song
Catalog	More than 200,000 songs
Labels	BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner
Previews	Free 30-second clip of any song
Format	AAC at 128 kbps
Burning	Unlimited CDs for personal use
Devices	Unlimited iPods; up to three Macs

Apple also sold exclusive tracks from more than 20 artists, including Bob Dylan, U2, Eminem, Sheryl Crow and Sting. Buyers could purchase a song with one click, and the files plugged straight into Apple’s other Mac programs, such as iMovie and iDVD.

Apple’s announcement credited Dolby with developing the AAC format and said it delivered near-CD quality, better than an MP3 of the same file size. The same iTunes 4 update added a feature called Rendezvous that let Macs on a home network share and stream music libraries.

Why the Record Labels Signed On

Apple’s pitch spoke to both sides of the piracy fight of the early 2000s: buyers wanted easy access to songs, and record companies wanted protection for recordings that were being copied for free online.

Steve Jobs framed it that way in the launch announcement: “Consumers don’t want to be treated like criminals and artists don’t want their valuable work stolen.” The usage rules were the compromise. Songs carried copy protection, but the limits, such as three computers and unlimited burned CDs, were generous for the time.

The store also fit the hardware Apple already sold. The iPod, introduced in October 2001, already synced automatically with iTunes, so a song bought in the store could be on the player the next time it was plugged in. By April 2007, when Apple sold its 100 millionth iPod, the store had sold more than 2.5 billion songs.

The First Week and the Windows Launch

Sales came fast. By May 5, 2003, a week after launch, the store had passed 1 million downloads, all of them from Mac owners in the United States.

The bigger expansion came that fall. On October 16, 2003, Apple released iTunes for Windows along with the second generation of the store, opening it to the far larger population of PC owners. Apple said more than 1 million copies of the Windows software were downloaded in about three and a half days.

How the iTunes Store Grew

The store spread internationally and beyond music over the next several years:

• June 15, 2004: Stores opened in the United Kingdom, France and Germany and sold 800,000 songs in their first week.
• December 16, 2004: Downloads passed 200 million.
• August 4, 2005: The store opened in Japan.
• October 12, 2005: iTunes 6 added video, including music videos, Pixar short films and TV shows.
• February 23, 2006: The store passed 1 billion songs sold. The milestone track was Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound,” bought by a customer in West Bloomfield, Michigan, who won a 20-inch iMac, ten iPods and a $10,000 iTunes gift card. Apple also set up a scholarship at the Juilliard School in his name.
• September 12, 2006: Steve Jobs reported 1.5 billion songs sold.
• May 30, 2007: iTunes Plus began selling songs without copy protection, starting with EMI’s catalog.
• January 15, 2008: Movie rentals launched.
• April 3, 2008: Apple announced that the iTunes Store had passed Wal-Mart to become the largest music retailer in the United States, based on NPD Group data.
• March 19, 2009: High-definition movies were added to the store.
• February 24, 2010: The store sold its 10 billionth song.

Legacy: From Downloads to Streaming

The 99-cent single changed the basic unit of a music purchase. Instead of buying a full album to get one song, listeners could pick tracks one at a time, legally, from every major label in one place.

Apple’s own software eventually moved on. In June 2019, Apple announced that macOS Catalina would retire the iTunes app on the Mac and split it into separate Music, TV and Podcasts apps, while the iTunes Store remained available inside the new Music app and iTunes continued on Windows.

You can see the store’s launch on the full 2003 calendar and its rise to the top of music retail on the 2008 calendar. The day-of-the-week tool confirms that April 28, 2003, was a Monday.