The Complete iTunes History -- SoundJam MP to iTunes 9
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Watching Steve take the stage and roll out a new version of iTunes got us all nostalgic for the old days, when iTunes logos changed color and our jukebox looked like it could withstand a bomb blast.
Below is the history of the application that is running more than any other on our Macs. It spawned the iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and gave us an excuse to throw out those ugly CD towers that resided in the corners of our houses in the 90s. The ever present, iTunes.
THE START
SoundJam MP
Somewhere around the time Metallica began suing Napster over the leak of its "Mission: Impossible II" track, "I Disappear," in 2000, a light bulb appeared over Steve Jobs’ head. Ever the innovator, Apple’s iCEO saw the peer-to-peer network as more than an illegal nuisance and began to develop a way to leverage the Napster revolution into the next killer Mac app. Audio players such as Audion and SoundApp had already exposed the inadequacies of QuickTime, and Apple knew it needed to build its solution from the ground up.
After being rebuffed by Panic, which was already in negotiations with AOL over use of its Audion code, Steve Jobs approached Robin Casady and Michael Greene to discuss their SoundJam MP app, a powerful digital encoding program that looked a lot like Apple’s QuickTime player. After a series of short negotiations, Casady & Greene sold the rights for SoundJam to Apple for an undisclosed sum, and Apple immediately set to work on the app that would forever change the digital landscape.
While the terms of the contract were top secret (Casady and Greene discontinued their app on June 1, 2001, but were barred from discussing the Apple deal for two years), Apple certainly wasn’t shy about ransacking SoundJam as it incorporated many of its signature features into iTunes, including visualizers, plug-ins, online retrieval of album data and drag-and-drop playlist creation. Much to the dismay of Jelly fans, however, Apple opted to leave SoundJam’s skins on the cutting-room floor.
iTunes 1 (Jan. 9, 2001-Oct. 23, 2001)
About 10 months later, at Macworld San Francisco in 2001, Apple debuted iTunes alongside iDVD and the CD-RW-enabled Power Macs. While it wasn’t exactly a show-stopper (though 275,000 copies were downloaded in the first week), the "world’s best and easiest to use ‘jukebox’ software" definitely raised the bar for music players on the Mac, which were relatively sparse and rather pricey (SoundJam cost $40). By offering iTunes as a free download and installing it on every new Mac, Apple essentially cut down the competition at the pass--or at least put a good scare into them. "Apple has done what Apple does best--make complex applications easy, and make them even more powerful in the process," said Steve Jobs at the time. "iTunes is miles ahead of every other jukebox application, and we hope its dramatically simpler user interface will bring even more people into the digital music revolution."
For many Mac users, iTunes was an introduction to digital music, and Apple strived to create a straightforward jukebox that needed little or no instruction to get started. Popping a music CD into your Mac automatically launched iTunes, which loaded the disc, collected track data from Gracenote and added them to your library. A clean interface split into boxes kept everything neat and always within reach of a mouse click.
Conspicuously missing from iTunes 1 was the ability to burn a CD on an external drive, a deficiency compounded by Apple’s mostly CD-RW-less line of Macs. Apple answered the cries a month later at Macworld Tokyo with the introduction of new iMacs and Cubes with write-able drives, a 1.1 update that added third-party support, and the launch of the controversial "Rip, Mix, Burn" campaign.
iTunes 2 (Oct. 23, 2001-July 17, 2002)
After racking up more than a million downloads in just a few short months, it quickly became clear that iTunes was every bit as revolutionary as Apple hoped. What all those users didn't know, however, was that the music player was merely the first part of a strategy that would redefine the company as more than a Mac maker. in October 2001, Steve Jobs showed us the next piece of Apple's digital hub in the form of an oddly named, undeniably sexy hand-held device. Built exclusively to leverage the popularity of Apple's music app, iPod came bundled with a brand-new version of iTunes that allowed it to seamlessly integrate with the songs and playlists stored on our Macs.
Along with a considerable ratcheting of burn time, Apple also added "the three most requested features" into iTunes 2: MP3 CD burning, a 10-band equalizer and cross fading. A holdover from SoundJam, iTunes’ overdue equalizer came preloaded with more than 20 presets and brought robust, receiver-style tweaking to the desktop. The new crossfader eliminated the annoying gaps between songs and paved the way for a new generation of laptop DJs, and a sound enhancer appealed to audiophiles by adding depth and richness to tracks.
But the real reason for iTunes 2 was iPod support, offering an unparalleled experience that transferred a few days’ worth of music from your Mac to your pocket in just about 10 minutes.
iTunes 3 (July 17, 2002-April 28, 2003)
Introduced at the final Macworld New York keynote as a companion to the first “solid-state touch wheel” iPod, iTunes 3 was a mostly incremental update with few dramatic changes. In the 18 months since its inception, some 14 million copies had been downloaded, so Apple had little reason to change the formula; rather it added just enough new features and enhancements to keep the iPod + iTunes revolution rolling.
With iTunes 3, however, Apple threw down another gauntlet. Reduced prices, greater capacities and slimmer enclosures made the second-generation iPod even more desirable, but the addition of Windows support was the big change, opening up the popular player to millions of new music lovers. But Apple wisely kept iTunes tied to the Mac, forcing Windows users to sync their iPods with MUSICMATCH, a sub-par jukebox that basically served as an advertisement for iTunes’ sleek interface and finer points.
As if to drive the point home, iTunes 3 added a few dozen new features, including track ratings, Sound Check for consistent volume playback, support for Audible audiobooks and Smart Playlists, which streamlined and automated the creation of digital mixes based on a series of predetermined rules. A few other enhancements--new track tags, library consolidation, playlist importing/exporting and track joining--added to the experience and widened the gap between iTunes and every other jukebox on the market.
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February 10, 2010 at 1:04pm
I started using SoundJam MP when it first came out and used it alot while i was in college. I sometimes still use it - is by way the best Music App for OS 9.2 and older! When i have the need to us OS 9 I usually use SoundJam over the the itunes! I so miss the ability to change the skins on a wim! Maybe apple will add that back in iTunes X!
I remember being upset that SoundJam was no longer available! Then i found out that the software was sold to apple!
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February 08, 2010 at 10:40pm
Ah, the good 'ol times. It's great that Itunes just keeps on getting better and better. I need to have my music on when I write my essay and do my assignments late at night and Itunes helped me stay awake during those hours. Itunes was also instrumental in the expansion of my musical tastes. I discovered a lot of great, obscure artists on it and now they're on constant repeat on my Ipod.
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January 30, 2010 at 10:22am
Although I don't own a Mac I still use iTunes on my PC.
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January 28, 2010 at 12:43am
I also predicted that device manufacturers will someday be knocking at Apple's doors asking to be allowed inside the iTunes walled garden. Lo and behold here comes the Palm Pre who doesn't even knock and ask nicely.
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January 01, 2010 at 11:15pm
I-tunes is the reason I now own a Mac. Love my I-pods and being able to jam! I download a lot of music from I-tunes. Keep up the good work
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Great article. I remember when I first got OSX 10.0, I was frustrated that there was no CD player application. I remember thinking "there had been one pre OSX and in OSX Beta, where was it now? I don't care about this iTunes thing, where is the CD player ?!?" Wow, was I totally missing the point back then...One feature I like is sharing. The office in which I work is internally networked, so I enjoy sharing my music with my co-workers and sharing theirs. On short lived feature that I used to film izle film izle film izle film izle çizgi film izle anime izle erotik film izle erotik film izle online film izle
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Bob Holtzmann
October 25, 2009 at 1:27pm
I was a registered user of Soundjam MP for less than a year. I recall it was running on System 9, so there was no Library database for the mp3 files. The play control window had the graphic peak display - which I liked, as it was a kind of small visualizer. The main reason I bought it was for its ability to convert AIF files to MP3. I was easier to store MP3 files on data disks - I was using Zip disks at the time.
For an mp3 jukebox in the late 1990s, SoundJam MP was the best one available for the Mac -- Windows had Winamp (which I guess is still around).
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September 20, 2009 at 8:43am
I never tried SoundJam MP prior to iTunes. In late 2001 or early 2002 I was using iTunes 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 on my new G4, great program. Before that I had been running MacAmp under Mac OS 8.6 on my old Mac.
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March 08, 2010 at 1:17pm
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September 17, 2009 at 9:11am
Internet sharing was removed as part of the deal with record companies to bring more songs to the iTunes Music Store. Broadly sharing music over the Internet, even without the capability of download, is a breech of copyright. With the labels already leary of mp3, Apple had to give them the assurance that DRM would fully protect them and that sharing would not be allowed.
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September 17, 2009 at 8:42am
"Simplify Media" (free app for Mac, Win and Linux) does exactly what you're looking for: You can access your whole iTunes home-library from your office and even on the iPhone (yes! free app and it even works via 3G/UMTS!). It's really great! Give it a try! And no, I'm not paid for this entry, it's just saving my life at work, daily! :) I just registered here, only to let you know about it. I'm sure you'll love it!
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September 16, 2009 at 12:03am
Cassidy and Green's Soundjam MP was one of the few sharewares I paid for. Now it's even better and it's free.
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September 14, 2009 at 9:33am
Thank you for this trip down memory lane. I have used iTunes since I first upgraded to OS X when I bought my iPod in 03. It is cool to see how far it came.
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September 13, 2009 at 7:12am
Wow, I never knew that apple bought the base of iTunes from another dev!
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September 12, 2009 at 6:37pm
Well I'd have to say i-tunes is the reason I now own a Mac. Love my i-pods and being able to jam! Keep up the good work Steve. J
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