iTunes Store

The following sections (stores) are available in the iTunes Store for Russia supermarket:

• Music
• Films
• App store
• Books
• Podcasts
• iTunes U

The success of the iPod paved the way for Apple's own music store. On April 28, 2003, Steve Jobs introduced the iTunes Store, an online music store, at the Moscone West Center in San Francisco. This event was preceded by long work with industry giants, and Jobs managed to persuade them to cooperate. He insisted that the songs in the store not be sold in albums, but individually, at 99 cents per song. At first, this approach aroused fears from record companies and artists: after all, most buyers purchase albums for the sake of two or three hits. However, Jobs had something to object to: “Piracy and the Internet have already destroyed the very idea of ​​albums. It’s impossible to compete with piracy unless you sell songs one at a time. ” Jobs promised that only Mac users will be the buyers of the iTunes store, and this is only 5% of the personal computer market. Music tycoons decided to take a chance, as the losses from piracy really became menacing:

We believe that 80% of people who steal music do it of their own free will - they simply have no choice. And we decided: we need to create a legal alternative. Everyone will benefit from this - the music companies, the musicians themselves, Apple, and ultimately the users, because they will get excellent service that will save them from having to steal ^[1] .

Original text

We believe that 80% of the people stealing stuff don't want to be, there's just no legal alternative. So we said, 'Let's create a legal alternative to this.' Everybody wins. Music companies win. The artists win. Apple wins. And the user wins, because he gets a better service and doesn't have to be a thief.

- Steve Jobs

ITunes Store CEO Eddie Kew predicted a million sales in the first 6 months; instead, a million songs were sold out in 6 days. Apple has confidently entered a new market, the opening of the iTunes store Jobs called a turning point in the history of the music industry. In June 2011, the 15 billionth composition was sold. Movies, TV shows, audio books and other media content are also sold through the store. Attempts by competitors to create a service similar to the iTunes Store did not have serious success.

All music in the iTunes store is available only in the proprietary AAC format (256 kbps), which has an effective compression algorithm. So, with an average song file size (8-15 MB), AAC has much less loss than a similar-sized MP3 . For example, AAC can have up to 48 audio channels when MP3 has only two. This format is able to play many programs on various platforms, which makes the iTunes Store even more popular.

Also in iTunes are available some albums marked "mastered for iTunes", which tells us about the "manual" conversion of songs even at the stage of recording an album, instead of automatic industry standards. This gives the listener a better sound.

• The iTunes Store is owned and maintained by Apple . Access to the store is carried out from the interactive shell of the iTunes browser or from the corresponding programs on the iPod , iPad , iPhone or Apple TV .
• The iTunes Store is the largest podcast catalog.
• Until September 12, 2006 the store was called - iTunes Music Store or iTMS
• In iTunes 11 and iOS 7, the store’s design has been redesigned.

Before Launch

September 10, 2012 it became known that Apple is going to open the music part of the iTunes Store in Russia, discussing currently agreements with music labels. November 19, 2012 on devices running iOS 6.xx in the Music application, access to the closed version of the iTunes Store was discovered. Then the average price of tracks became known. Initially, the iTunes Store in Russia was supposed to launch on November 20, 2012, but Eddie Kew flew to Russia and did not reach an agreement with some artists, and the iTunes Store was scheduled to launch by the start of iPhone 5 sales. On November 29, RIA Novosti reported that the iTunes Store was opened in Russia should be held December 4-6, 2012. Also, a company representative told reporters that on December 4 Apple is preparing a press briefing in Moscow. And if it takes place, then this will be the first such event in Russia. It took place, but people just listened to the concert. It also provided a special iTunes card for purchases in the iTunes Store.

Launch

Since the evening of December 3, 2012, the iTunes Store has been operating in Russia, offering its users to purchase, rent a movie or listen to the streaming of some albums. Despite strong competition from distributors of illegal materials (primarily VKontakte ), the iTunes Store is successfully developing, offering every day a larger and larger range of media. All iTunes features have been saved: the purchase of music, movies, podcasts and books ^[2] . As of June 2017, the purchase of books and series in the Russian section of the store is not possible due to the lack of a contract with copyright holders, only a small assortment of mostly English-language classics in the public domain is offered for free.

Russian performers

In parallel with the development of the iTunes Store in Russia, more and more Russian artists are joining the service. Now you can legally purchase albums by artists such as Vintage , Leningrad , Splin, Agatha Christie, KanZer, Amatory, Zemfira, Kino, Mumiy Troll and many other artists various genres.

It is also worth noting that the price for purchases in Russia is adapted to a lower purchase price. For example, in Europe you will have to pay 0.99 euros for a track, in Russia - about 22 rubles.

Apple regularly holds music festivals. The first iTunes Music Festival was held in September 2007 in London. The iTunes store also sells live performances from these festivals. The event has already been visited by many famous bands and artists.

By February 2010, the store sold a total of 10 billion songs: ^[3] Now available in it:

• over 43 million songs ^[4] ;
• 100,000 television shows and 15,000 films, over 5,000 of which are available in HD format.

iTunes Store, as a full-fledged store, available in 62 countries :

Availability of content in other countries

The heterogeneity, as well as the lack of any content in different countries, is explained by the position of the copyright holders of the content . Apple is only entitled to the software section for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. All other content (music, video, etc.) is the property of record companies and major movie companies in Hollywood . Only content owners can decide in a store in which country to make their works available.

Interesting Facts

On April 23, 2013, Apple launched the iTunes Decade: “10 years with iTunes” on the iTunes Store.

• US : $ 0.99 per song, $ 7.99, $ 9.99 or $ 14.99 per album
• Canada : CA $ 0.99 per song, CA $ 9.99 per album, CA $ 11.99 per album with digital booklet and video clip
• UK : ₤ 0.79 per song, ₤ 7.99 per album, ₤ 9.99 per album with digital booklet and video clip
• Eurozone : € 0.99 per song, € 9.99 per album, € 11.99 per album with digital booklet and video clip
• Scandinavia : 9 kroons per song, 90 kroons per album, 100 kroons per album with a digital booklet and video clip
• Russia : 10-22 rubles per song, 29-249 rubles per album (album prices are not fixed)

• February 2008 - The iTunes Store overtook Wal-Mart and became the largest music distributor in the United States . The number of iTunes users has exceeded 50 million. Since the launch of the service in 2003, more than 4 billion tracks have been sold through the store. ^[five]
• 2008 , June 19 - The 5 billionth song was sold. ^[6]
• 2008 , December 31 - By the beginning of 2009, 6 billion songs were sold in the iTunes Store, and there are 75 million users in the database of credit card accounts. ^[7]
• February 28, 2010 - 10 billion songs sold on the iTunes Store. ^[3]
• 2010 , September 1 - 11.7 billion songs, 450 million TV shows, 100 million films, 35 million books were downloaded from the iTunes Store ^[8] .
• 2013 , February 7 - 25 billion songs were downloaded from the iTunes Store. The anniversary song was Monkey Drums by Chase Buch . Philip Lupke, a German resident who downloaded this song, received a € 10,000 gift certificate from Apple. ^[9]
• 2013 , April 12 - Apple began to require developers to translate applications into other languages, including Russian.

• App store
• Mac App Store
• Google play
• Xbox music

• Wozniak C. , Smith D. Steve Jobs and I. The True Story of Apple = iWoz. - M .: Eksmo , 2011 .-- 288 p. - ISBN 978-5-699-53452-4 .
• Isaacson W. Steve Jobs = Steve Jobs: A Biography. - M .: Astrel , 2012 .-- 688 p. - ISBN 978-5-271-39378-5 .

• ITunes Store on Twitter
• 10 years ITUNES
• 07/11/2014 :: support.apple.com :: Accounts for purchases in the iTunes Store on credit and debit card statements