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Entity takes a look back at the history and evolution of Apple's iTunes.

You’ve spent hours using it to discover the latest songs to rock to after a rough breakup, set phone alarms for when Taylor Swift’s new album went live, and delightfully named your iPod “Your Ship” so your computer screen would say, “Your Ship is Syncing.”

When it comes to iTunes, you might feel like an expert. Considering that 63 percent of paid digital music downloads occur through iTunes, it’s nearly impossible to not know something about this music platform. However, you probably don’t know all the changes that took place to turn iTunes into the music powerhouse you know and love today. Explore the timeline  below– formed with help from MacWorld and Complex – to discover iTunes’ groovy past for yourself.

October 2001: SYNCING SUPERPOWERS. 

The first big change to hit iTunes? A powerful marriage between Apple’s new technology – the iPod – and iTunes. Although this update also added MP3 CD burning and cross fading to iTunes, most people were talking about the ability to transfer thousands of songs from your computer to your iPod. As Steve Jobs famously said, the iPod (and its syncing abilities with iTunes) meant you could wear “1,000 songs in your pocket.”

July 2002: PLAYLISTS GET SMART.

With the debut of iTunes 3, users could now create Smart Playlists – aka, playlists that came with their own set of rules. Using these rules, you could create playlists like “Top 25 Most Played” or create a playlist with songs from a certain year. All you had to do was click a few menu options. While this may sound basic today, in 2002, it gave people with huge music libraries an easier way to organize and enjoy their music.

For all of you audio book lovers, iTunes 3 also featured support for audio books from Audible. One could call it just another chapter in iTunes’ success story.

April 2003: SHOPPING PRIVILEGES.

When you thought iTunes couldn’t get any better, the iTunes Music Store made its grand entrance. Appearing with iTunes 4, the store let people buy digital copies of their favorite tunes from one place. The music store gave music lovers a simple and easy way to purchase music, usually for less than a dollar per tune, and it was a legal option to the piracy people had been engaging in for a long time. Some favorite store features? A chart showing the top-selling songs and the ability to purchase individual songs instead of entire albums. By the end of its first week, the iTunes Music Store sold one million songs.

As MacWorld points out, 2003 also marked the introduction of a Windows version of iTunes. According to Steve Jobs, this was “probably the best Windows app ever written.” For iTunes, 2003 wasn’t too shabby.

April 2004 – September 2005: PARTY TIME!

With iTunes 4.5, Apple users could now use Party Shuffle to randomly order their music in a “play queue.” While this was a basic tool, users loved it because, instead of randomly picking a song once the previous one ended, it showed the songs coming up in the playlist. Also, you had the freedom to un-check tracks you didn’t want in the Party Shuffle and you could hit the button again for a new, random playlist.

Later on, Apple changed Party Shuffle’s name to “iTunes DJ” and friends could request songs via mobile devices. That ability didn’t last long, though; in iTunes 11, the “Up Next” feature replaced the friend request.

October 2005: ITUNES ISN’T JUST FOR MUSIC TRACKS ANYMORE… 

In the iTunes 5 update, you could suddenly buy your favorite music videos and episodes of TV shows like “Lost” on the Apple interface. For only $1.99, you could get your videos on demand, instead of waiting to watch them on MTV. This feature may have become even more popular, though, if YouTube hadn’t launched around the same time.

September 2006: GO WITH THE (COVER) FLOW.

Not only did iTunes 7 introduce iPod games, gapless playback, and support for Apple TV (in early 2007), but it also introduced Cover Flow (now retired). With Cover Flow, Apple placed a new emphasis on albums’ cover art. When perusing your music choices, the cover art for each track would appear above each song. No longer getting your art fix from iTunes? That’s because it was one of several features removed with iTunes 11.

February – May 2007: DOWN WITH DRM.

In February, Jobs wrote an essay – titled “Thoughts on Music” – which discussed the negatives of digital rights management on music downloads and offered other options. One of those options appeared as iTunes Plus, released in May, which featured 256 kbps DRM of free music. Though sold at a slight premium, the music worked with several kinds of software and hardware. Before long, digital music sales kicked DRM restrictions to the (computerized) curb.

September 2009: SHARE THE LOVE.

With iTunes 9, music is best when shared. Now, iTunes allowed up to five computers to share music and video libraries. Previously, people could share music with others on the same network (like classmates or co-workers), but they couldn’t keep the shared songs on their own playlists. This worked great – unless the computer with your desired song was turned off. Home Sharing worked by having users dragging tracks from one library to another. It also planted the seeds for the family sharing features in iOS 8.

With iTunes 8 and 9, users also became able to rent and buy movies and TV shows, take courses from iTunes U, and buy eBooks.

June 2010: DATA GATHERING.

Thanks to a few changes to its iTunes Store privacy policy, Apple could now collect real-time information on the location of users ages 13 years and older. Apple could share this data with third-party advertising and promotional service companies as well as with public and governmental authorities. At the time, U.S. Representatives wrote to Steve Jobs and investigated Apple. In the end, though, they were satisfied with Apple’s reasons for the policy alterations.

September 2010: PINGING…AND LOSING.

Never heard of Ping? Don’t worry – you didn’t miss out on anything. It was introduced as a “social network for music” that users could use to talk about the music they were listening to. Since only iTunes users could access Ping, it didn’t have enough members to be a successful social network. It was originally replaced with the iTunes Sidebar in October 2010, but that was also short-lived. Apple completely killed Ping in September 2012.

 2008-2011: GETTIN’ SECURE.

In November 2011, The Telegraph reported that Apple had been hacked through a bogus security update by a British company called Gamma International. It’s believed that the software was even offered to Egypt’s secret police. Although Apple was reportedly informed of the hacking in 2008, they didn’t fix the issue until 2011.

November 2012: UP IN THE CLOUDS.

With iTunes 11, iTunes experienced the biggest transformation since its creation. Apple entirely changed its interface and users said goodbye to features like Ping, iTunes DJ/Party Shuffle, and Cover Flow. Perhaps the most annoying goodbye was to the navigation field typically on the left side of your computer screen. Thanks to the update, however, purchased iTunes content could now be stored in the Cloud.

 June 2010: STREAM SOME TUNES.

To help complete iTunes’ domination of music, Apple created iTunes Radio, which was similar to Pandora and Spotify. All iTunes users could use it. By the end of the following year, Apple had bought out Beats Electronics and gained control of their headphones and streaming station, Beats Music. Some 2014 reports predicted a future merge between iTunes Radio and Beats Music.

 September 2014: YOU GET U2 TOO!

Have you ever turned down a free product? Plenty of Apple users wished they could have after U2’s new album, “Songs of Innocence,” was downloaded onto nearly 500 million iTunes accounts. Apple offered the album as a bonus for all iTunes users on the same day that they released the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. In the end, though, users hated how much space the album took up on their iPhones. Cue a public apology from U2 lead vocalist, Bono, and Apple making the album easier for users to remove.

 December 2014: EUROPEAN RETURN POLICY.

Don’t like a song or any other purchased digital content? If you’ve bought it from Apple and live in Europe, you can return it for a refund  within 14 days“without giving any reason.” Apple made this policy change to comply with the European Union’s right of withdrawal rules – and plenty of American iTunes lovers are probably jealous!

 2015: JUMPING INTO ITUNES 12.

Apple reflected today’s emphasis on streaming with new features like Apple Music and the iCloud Music Library (the latter of which is probably enjoyed by many, but definitely hated by people with carefully organized music libraries). The iTunes Store is now impossible to ignore. While iTunes may have begun as a platform for people who love to listen to music, it’s now saturated with features designed to sell music.

Do these changes suggest that iTunes is an enduring classic or just a one-hit wonder for the future of music platforms? Comment your thoughts below or tweet us @entity_mag!

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