History and Features of iTunesBy: Seth Comerford

The Start – SoundJam MP

The first and earliest edition of the now popular iTunes started out as something like this, know as the SoundJam MP. SoundJam MP was created by Robin Casady and Michael Greene to talk about their latest music player. After a few short negotiations, Casady and Greene sold the rights for SoundJam to Apple. Immediately Apple set to work on the music app that would forever change the digital landscape of music.

The 1st edition of iTunes

Roughly 10 months later, Apple debuted iTunes alongside iDVD. By offering this program for free Apple had 275,000 downloads in the first week. The iTunes application on the Macintosh computers quickly became the best and well known jukebox.

iTunes 9

Just 8 years after the first release of iTunes, much has been accomplished. They made the iPod which was meant to be your own personal handheld iTunes, but turned into so much more, they created different layouts to fit the current vibe, added a shop, and then features that you can use to share and trade music with friends and family.

iTunes Decade

This past April iTunes experienced its first decade. In excitement for this special event, they created a page called “ A Decade Of iTunes” and went back through the years of popular hits, albums, and music videos. They also revisited their years as an early music application that soon built its way to fame. They included their history from 2003 –2013, and the accomplishments that went with each year.

Features of iTunes

iTunes Radio

iTunesPlayer

iTunes Store

iTunesEverywhere

iTunes Radio

iTunes Radio is a brand new application in iTunes. This new feature came out with the new iOS7 update for the Apple products. iTunes Radio acts the same as the application Pandora, but iTunes Radio comes with more options and is much easier to navigate. iTunes Radio helps you fine tune what you want to listen to, with more than 200 options in music genre’s alone. iTunes Radio is the revolutionary music player.

iTunes PlayeriTunes Player has never been easier to use. You can organize, rate, and download new music instantly. Music isn’t all you can download though...there is a large list of movies, pod casts, TV shows, lectures, books, and much more.

iTunes StoreiTunes Store allows you to purchase music, videos, TV shows, movies, books, lectures, pod casts, and much much more. You can easily browse similar items from those you have purchased before, and purchase more.

iTunes EverywhereiCloud lets you have anything you have ever purchased on iTunes, in the palm of your hand, or on the go. iCloud shares everything between all of your devices keeping you connected.

A fairly new feature that you can purchase with iCloud is the new Apple TV. You can watch movies, TV shows, music videos, and even videos from your own mobile device.

Credits

http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/04/24/apple-celebrates-a-decade-of-itunes-with-year-by-year-milestones

http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/complete_itunes_history_soundjam_mp_itunes_9

http://www.apple.com/itunes/features/#radio