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Dec 18,2005 - Dec 25,2005 |
Music History
Windows version of Apple iTunes launched
By Alessandro Cancian
Originally Published: 2003-10-26
Under the slogan "Hell Froze Over", a casually dressed Steve Jobs last week in San Francisco launched the Windows version of the famous and acclaimed Apple iTunes software.
We still don't know whether hell really froze over, but judging from comments and rumours running all over the Internet the arrival of this new iTunes has not gone overlooked.
The arrival of Apple's jukebox for Microsoft machines means an immediate opening of the iTunes Music Store to Windows users, which the latest statistics represent well over 90 percent of computer users. Windows users will have the same online music store, the same catalogue, the same personal use rights and the same pricing of $0.99 per song or $9.99 per album previously reserved for Apple users.
Since its launch, six months ago, music lovers have purchased and downloaded over 13 million songs from the iTunes Music Store, thus making it the world's most popular musical download service, with a market share of 70 percent ascertained by an independent research. Sporting music from all five music majors and over 200 indie labels, the catalogue keeps growing by the day and within the end of October it will include over 400,000 songs.
Apple offers the unbeatable combination of iTunes, iTunes Music Store, and iPod, the market leader among digital music players.
Itunes, distributed freely, features MP3 and AAC high quality coding from audio CDs; Smart Playlists; over 250 free Internet radio stations; and the possibility to burn CDs with personalized playlists and MP3, burn DVDs to store a whole musical collection, and share music among different computers with Rendezvous. Currently, the online store remains only for U.S. residents, but there are high hopes that it will soon be extended to Canada.
In addition to songs, Apple now offers also 5,000 audiobooks, in most cases read by the authors, that can easily be downloaded and played on one's computer or carried around on one's iPod.
The musical suggestions from artists have their own section called "Celebrity Playlist", and every artist has prepared a special list of songs that can be purchased one by one or as a group; at present, 16 artists have compiled their lists.
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