ITunes Music Store

The iTunes Music Store (iTMS) is an online music service run by Apple Computer with its iTunes application. Introduced on April 28, 2003, the store, which uses DRM restrictions, has since been a dominant online music service and has proven the viability of online music sales.

Catalog content

Currently, several dozen new songs are added each Tuesday, and beginning with Moby on July 29, 2003, independent artists are now included. Apple also releases a 'Single of the Week' and usually a 'Discovery Download,' on Tuesdays, which are available at a no cost download for one week. It has recently launched albums on pre-order status, the first one to become available was X&Y by Coldplay.

Related Topics:
Moby - July 29 - 2003 - X&Y - Coldplay

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The iTunes Music Store also includes over 9,000 audio books, encoded at 32 kbit/s. 90 second previews are offered for every book.

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Neither The Beatles nor Led Zeppelin appear in the iTunes online catalogue (with the exception of a very early Tony Sheridan album with the Beatles as background singers). Led Zeppelin are not included due to a belief (by the band) that their songs should not be available outside of albums, while The Beatles' record company Apple Corps is currently in a legal battle with Apple Computer over the name "Apple". There are, however, biographies within the Music Store for both Led Zeppelin and The Beatles.

Related Topics:
The Beatles - Led Zeppelin - Tony Sheridan - Apple Corps

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As of August 2005, the Japanese store offers no songs from Sony Music Entertainment. However, some musicians like rock musican Motoharu Sano are trying to sign with Apple independently http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050810/japan_itunes.html. On September 6, 2005, SME announced its plan to sell songs in iTMS but did not say when http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=4&id=348265.

Related Topics:
August 2005 - Sony Music Entertainment - Motoharu Sano - September 6 - 2005

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In 2004 CDBaby (an online music store which features more than 100,000 independent artists) signed a deal with Apple and managed to get every artist (who wanted digital music distribution) on iTunes.

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