I’ll surrender the iTunes Music Store — if you pry it from my chilly, useless arms

Getting into digital music 25 years in the past consisted of two issues. If we weren’t illegally downloading songs by way of Napster, Limewire, Kazaa, or any of the opposite file-sharing packages, we have been ripping CDs to our computer systems utilizing a program like WinAmp or MusicMatch. Both have been serviceable, however may make it tough when managing your music library.

Then, on Jan. 9, 2001, Steve Jobs introduced iTunes, which was trumpeted because the “world’s best and easiest to use jukebox software.”

Version 1.0, tailored from an earlier program known as SoundJamMP that Apple had bought and refurbished, was a sleeker model of WinAmp and its brethren. Initially, it was only a Mac product, however it was prolonged to Windows customers within the fall of 2003.

By then, the iTunes Music Store had opened (born April 29, 2003), permitting folks to purchase full, virus-free digital recordsdata of 200,000 songs from main labels for 99 cents every.

Things solely acquired larger from there. Labels realized that digital music was the longer term, and Apple by far supplied the most suitable choice. More songs have been added to the shop. Digital rights administration locks have been finally stripped away. Fans now not had to purchase the complete album in the event that they wished simply that one track.

Within a number of years, the iTunes Music Store had cornered the market on digital music with a world market share of 70 per cent, making it the web’s de facto music retailer. There was a lot written in regards to the “long tail” mannequin, and the way songs would reside endlessly on-line, obtainable for buy by all. As of 2014, the final time Apple broke out iTunes gross sales, 35 billion songs had been bought and downloaded by the shop. That quantity is now clearly a lot greater.

Then the streaming period hit — onerous.

When Spotify went on-line in 2008, folks rapidly realized that though 99 cents was grime low-cost for a track, free was even higher. Spotify and its opponents remade the way in which music was distributed, found, consumed and shared. CD gross sales, already in a demise spiral, fell additional. And buying digital tracks? How quaint. Apple needed to reply with Apple Music in 2015.

In 2019, rumours started that Apple was going to shut down iTunes completely after it shut down the iTunes app, folding all the things into a brand new app known as Music, which buried the shop within the interface.

People feared that the obtain period was over and we have been all being herded towards streaming, inflicting a lot panic amongst those that most popular to personal their music fairly than lease it. That by no means occurred, after all, however it’s important to marvel how lengthy Apple’s enthusiasm will final in terms of working a digital music retailer.

Let’s take a look at some figures. As of this previous week, Luminate, the monitor of such issues, advised us that Canadians have bought 744,899 digital albums from all on-line shops up to now this yr, a 23 per cent drop from this level in 2024. Compare that to gross sales of somewhat greater than one million CDs and 1.1 million vinyl albums. We’ve been shopping for fewer than 200,000 digital tracks every week for some time now, which is down about 16 per cent from final yr.

So, how many individuals are nonetheless utilizing the iTunes Music Store? Figures are somewhat onerous to return by, however it seems that in America, month-to-month iTunes Store clients are down to about 11.1 million. Given that about ten occasions that quantity nonetheless subscribe to Apple Music for streaming, on-line radio, audiobooks and podcasts, retailer income is a shadow of its former self.

I, nonetheless, won’t ever surrender on iTunes. Never.

The thought of my music assortment being held hostage by an organization in trade for a month-to-month subscription price is anathema to me. Sure, streaming is nice for auditioning songs and exploring music from the consolation of residence, however I’m nonetheless caught on the concept of possession and possession. And as a result of I want correct authorized copies of songs for my work — (the place do you suppose I get a lot of the songs for Ongoing History of New Music reveals?) — the iTunes Music Store is the perfect and best supply.

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I additionally respect the hassle Apple has made in upgrading audio high quality. They’ve been providing lossless tracks (i.e., not one of the annoying compression) since 2011. Spatial Audio songs sound implausible, in lots of circumstances, even higher than CD high quality. Spotify has but to improve from what may be compressed 256 or 320 kbps streams.

And I’m not alone. I requested folks on X, Threads, and Bluesky why they nonetheless used the iTunes Music Store for tunes. I used to be flooded with a whole bunch of solutions, 99 per cent in help of iTunes. I’m down with all the things that was mentioned.

• “I like to support the art. $1 a song isn’t terrible. I like having a copy on my phone without going through Spotify. I really miss the old-school iPod.”
• “I use it to blend personal library stuff (like Record Store Day vinyl releases and other totally legally acquired tracks) with my Apple Music streaming library.”
• “I love my iTunes, love having my playlist that I’ve created over the last 15 years. I like that I buy songs once but listen to them hundreds of times (or more).”
• “One-off song purchases for DJing.”
• “I use my iPod Nano (2nd gen!) at the gym to avoid online distractions.”
• “I have over a quarter million songs ripped to my iTunes digital library (mostly ripped from CDs). I find it’s a capable enough system to stream music around my home (via an Apple TV hooked into my receivers).
• “If I’m interested in something new, I will buy the album from iTunes as I no longer wanted to add discs to my oversized library.”
• “No requirement for WiFi! All devices sync immediately.”

But there’s a demographic element that’s worrying. Approximately 81 per cent of purchasers of music from iTunes are over 35. Many adopted iTunes greater than 20 years in the past and aren’t involved in breaking the behavior.

Meanwhile, the iTunes Music Store doesn’t appear to excite the younger. Paid digital downloads are light-years off their radar. Gen Z is even souring on streaming and as a substitute gravitating extra to social media and YouTube for music.

However, many musicians choose iTunes revenues. While streamers pay out pittances — fractions of a fraction of a cent — 70 per cent of the acquisition value is distributed the artist’s approach. Even after the label, writer, and everybody else take their reduce, the artist makes considerably extra per observe bought by iTunes.

How lengthy will Apple maintain working the iTunes Music Store? The firm gained’t say, after all, however so long as there’s a market, it should keep on-line. Having it go darkish isn’t a fait accompli. At least not but. There are nonetheless loads of use circumstances for the shop. Many followers won’t let it disappear with out a struggle.

Like I mentioned within the headline: From my chilly, useless arms.

 

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