The launch of the iTunes Store (in 2003 in the US and 2004 in Europe) was the next key step in Apple’s domination of digital music. “That was an unheard of amount of money at the time for an advertising budget,” says Rosen. Its success eventually strengthened Apple’s hand to persuade labels to allow it to be compatible with Windows, giving the company a huge market to target.Īpple bolstered this with marketing and advertising spend – notably with its powerful “silhouette” ads – in the tens of millions of dollars, something far beyond what labels had ever attempted. It was seen as a small and safe testing ground. Record labels initially insisted that it be a Mac-only device, with Apple then only accounting for 5% of global computer sales. “There it is right there,” he said holding it up as the room erupted in applause. It was unveiled at an Apple event on 23 October 2001, with Jobs talking through the device specs and then, like a digital conjuror, pulling it out of his pocket. Jobs wanted it as small as possible, with an apocryphal tale circulating that he tossed one prototype in a fish tank, pointed at the bubbles coming out and said they indicated dead space that should be removed. The eureka moment was the click wheel, conceived by Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing chief, that enabled nimble search and control without a keyboard. This secrecy defined the original development of the device, with only a few Apple executives allowed to see the iPod, codenamed P-68 (and, colloquially, Dulcimer). The company soon reneged, however, and said it would not have any company executives speak about the iPod. The company, usually reticent to speak in pieces that include non-Apple voices, initially said it could put forward Eddy Cue, who oversaw the creation of iTunes and now heads up everything from Apple Music to Apple TV+. I approached Apple to talk about the legacy of the iPod. Apple swooped and signed them as exclusive manufacturers, slamming the door on Creative Labs which was simultaneously working on their Zen MP3 player. The issue of limited storage was cracked by Toshiba developing a cheap 5GB disc drive that could hold about 1,000 songs. The design and functionality of the iPod was something Jobs obsessed over during its gestation period. She adds that record labels saw it as one thing “to sue that little company Diamond” but something else to “try and take on a behemoth” such as Apple. “Once the iPod came along, they were more open to a middle ground,” says Rosen. After the failed Rio litigation, there had been a change in temperature among labels, slowly accepting it was better to work with rather than against such devices. It was an enormous gamble but Jobs’s timing was, not for the first or last time, impeccable. The next step was to develop a music player that shunted its rivals into the ditch, and from there followed a move into music retail with the iTunes Store. ITunes, launched in January 2001, enabled the ripping and management of CDs on a user’s computer. He was convinced only Apple could successfully streamline digital music. Jobs viewed this as an unmissable opportunity, damning the Rio and its competitors as “brain-dead” due to clunky software and design. In October 1999, however, a US district court judge denied the RIAA’s demand for an injunction against the Rio and more than 200,000 players were sold soon after. The record labels “wanted the player off the market”, says Hilary Rosen, who was CEO of the trade organisation Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) between 19. ![]() ![]() Steve Jobs with the iPod on 23 October 2001. Record labels felt it should be subject to a blank media levy and pay royalties to copyright owners on every device sold. It was Diamond Multimedia and its Rio range of MP3 players that first caught the public’s imagination and the music business’s ire. The first digital music players emerged in late 1998 and early 1999, notably the Personal Jukebox (developed by Compaq Research), which held the equivalent of a CD’s worth of music and was prone to skipping if bumped. “Whatever the music industry thought, that’s what you shouldn’t do.” So the iPod benefited not just from the design deficiencies of the MP3 players before it, but also from an early mover taking all the legal heat from a record business spooked into fight mode. “ was a bellwether for idiocy,” claims Jim Griffin, an industry consultant who cut his digital teeth at Geffen in the 1990s, putting out the first full-length song legally online in June 1994 ( Head First by Aerosmith). The industry responded by attempting to sue filesharing service Napster and the copycat services that came in its wake: litigation rather than innovation.
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