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Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios,

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I heart radio and I love

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Speaker 1: all things tech. And first and foremost, my apologies if

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Speaker 1: my voice starts to give out throughout this episode. Between

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Speaker 1: when I recorded the first part of the iTunes Story,

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Speaker 1: which came out before this episode, and this part the

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Speaker 1: second part of the iTunes story, I got a terrible

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Speaker 1: summer cold, and so I am on the mend. I was,

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Speaker 1: I was just fighting it off when I recorded the

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Speaker 1: first half, and now I'm getting it, you know, getting

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Speaker 1: out the other side on the second half. So my

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Speaker 1: apologies for the particularly grossness of my voice today. But

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Speaker 1: the show she must keep going, I think, as the saying.

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Speaker 1: And in our last episode, I covered the developments and

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Speaker 1: launch of iTunes in two thousand one, when the program

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Speaker 1: first launched, up to the point when Apple would introduce

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Speaker 1: the iTunes Music store in two thousand three, and I

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Speaker 1: also focused quite a bit on Apple's history leading up

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Speaker 1: to that and why it would be such a big

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Speaker 1: deal for iTunes to premiere. The company had managed to

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Speaker 1: convince the music industry to take a chance on selling

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Speaker 1: songs a la carte for cents a pop, and the

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Speaker 1: record labels had little to lose and agreed with some

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Speaker 1: conditions which I talked about. But in two thousand four,

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Speaker 1: Apple expanded the iTunes Music Store internationally. It had started

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Speaker 1: off as only being available in the United States, but

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Speaker 1: next on the list of countries to join iTunes Music

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Speaker 1: Store where France, the UK, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Austria, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg,

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Speaker 1: and the Netherlands the Great White North. But by which

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Speaker 1: of course I mean our buddy Canada had to wait

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Speaker 1: a few months later. They got iTunes music store support

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Speaker 1: starting December third, two thousand four, so just at the

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Speaker 1: very tail end of the year. Now over the following

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Speaker 1: year's Apple would continue to expand operations into new markets,

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Speaker 1: which greatly contributed to the increase in revenue through the

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Speaker 1: iTunes Music Store. Then we have iTunes version five, which

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Speaker 1: debuted on September seven, two thousand five, And it was

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Speaker 1: this version of iTunes that would set the stage for

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Speaker 1: my career because it was iTunes five that adds support

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Speaker 1: for a young form of media called podcasts. Now, technically

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Speaker 1: podcasts were available on iTunes before version five came out.

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Speaker 1: They had been added to the music store about three

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Speaker 1: months earlier with an update called iTunes four point five.

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Speaker 1: But it was really upon the release of iTunes five

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Speaker 1: that people started to really hear about it and just

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Speaker 1: to let you guys, peek behind the curtain a little bit,

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Speaker 1: where your show appeared on iTunes if you were a podcaster,

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Speaker 1: that was a huge deal back in those days. Arguably

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Speaker 1: it still is, but I mean back then it was

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Speaker 1: make or break. There weren't as many podcatching services back then,

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Speaker 1: or at least not many high profile ones, so getting

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Speaker 1: your show featured on the podcast page of the iTunes

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Speaker 1: store could mean going from obscure to famous in very

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Speaker 1: short order. To get featured, someone at Apple had to

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Speaker 1: take notice of you, and it really helped if you

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Speaker 1: happen to be really good, which is why my colleagues

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Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck, hosts of Stuff you Should Know, got

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Speaker 1: featured on iTunes pretty early on, just a few months

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Speaker 1: after they had launched Stuff you Should Know, and that

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Speaker 1: propelled them to the spotlight where they flourished. My show

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Speaker 1: has appeared in the top ten technology podcasts frequently over

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Speaker 1: the years, sometimes even reaching number one on occasion. I

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Speaker 1: remember taking a screenshot the first time that happened because

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Speaker 1: I was chuffed two bits, so to speak. The algorithms

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Speaker 1: to determine placement in the top in We're never really

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Speaker 1: entirely apparent, but it became clear that showing up on

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Speaker 1: those pages really helped bring an audience to the show.

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Speaker 1: Another feature introduced between versions four and five, but really

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Speaker 1: emphasized in five, was Party Shuffle, which does not describe

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Speaker 1: the type of dancing I do when I'm at a

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Speaker 1: social gathering, although that would also be accurate. No. A

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Speaker 1: party Shuffle would create a shuffled playlist, so instead of

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Speaker 1: keeping the next song a mystery where you would have

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Speaker 1: a song playing and you have no idea what's coming

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Speaker 1: up next, the feature would actually take a list of

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Speaker 1: songs and shuffle the order so that the user could

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Speaker 1: actually still see the full list of songs, and that

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Speaker 1: gave users the option of customizing a shuffled playlist and

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Speaker 1: moving songs or even removing them completely from the queue.

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Speaker 1: So you might have a nice list of songs and

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Speaker 1: you think I don't even know what order to play

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Speaker 1: these in so you could use party Shuffle. It would

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Speaker 1: automatically randomize the order of that list, and then you

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Speaker 1: can look over and make sure that still, you know,

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Speaker 1: seems like a good party mix. It's pretty handy if

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Speaker 1: you're building a playlist for a party and if you

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Speaker 1: don't want six slow jams playing back to back. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: this feature would evolve into something else called iTunes DJ,

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Speaker 1: but that's uh slightly more complicated story that I might

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Speaker 1: touch on a little later in this episode. Similarly, Apple

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Speaker 1: had also introduced a service called air Tunes, which allowed

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Speaker 1: users to stream audio from one WiFi connected device running iTunes.

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Speaker 1: So really we're talking about a Mac computer because this

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Speaker 1: is really before the iPhone and iPod touch eras, and

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Speaker 1: then you could stream that to another WiFi connected device.

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Speaker 1: Around that same time, Apple also introduced a piece of

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Speaker 1: hardware called the Airport Express. It's a wireless access point

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Speaker 1: that also had an audio output jack. So you could

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Speaker 1: stream music from your Mac computer to your Airport Express outlet,

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Speaker 1: and you could have speakers plugged into that outlet and

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Speaker 1: you could play music in a different room. So that

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Speaker 1: was the basic idea. You also had to have an

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Speaker 1: ethernet cable plugged into that airport express. But it was

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Speaker 1: a way that you could expand or extend the way

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Speaker 1: you could play music through a space, So it was

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Speaker 1: an interesting idea. Now. Later Apple would evolve air Tunes

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Speaker 1: into a similar service called Airplay, which eventually could handle

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Speaker 1: all sorts of media, not just audio streaming. I'll talk

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Speaker 1: about that a bit later too. By the time iTunes

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Speaker 1: five point oh came out, the Apple Music Store played

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Speaker 1: host to more than two million songs, ten times the

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Speaker 1: number that the store had opened with back in two

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Speaker 1: thousand three oh and Steve Jobs had a new type

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Speaker 1: of hardware to show off at that particular music event.

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Speaker 1: It was what he called the iTunes phone, also known

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Speaker 1: as the Rocker E one R O k R, was

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Speaker 1: a phone made by Motorola that users could port songs

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Speaker 1: from iTunes onto. But the Rocker would turn into a

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Speaker 1: painful lesson for Jobs and for Apple. First of all,

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Speaker 1: the phone was not very impressive to look at, and

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Speaker 1: you can tell when Steve Jobs was showing it off

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Speaker 1: at this event that he wasn't really feeling it. The

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Speaker 1: phone looked a bit cheap. If I'm going to be honest,

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Speaker 1: It was a candy bar style phone format from the

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Speaker 1: old cell phone days, so it was a cell phone,

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Speaker 1: it was not really a smartphone. It could only hold

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Speaker 1: about a hundred songs, and you had to transfer music

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Speaker 1: from a computer to the phone via a cable, so

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Speaker 1: you actually had to put the phone and plug it

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Speaker 1: into your computer and then manually poured over the songs

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Speaker 1: the one hundred or a fewer songs you wanted onto

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Speaker 1: the phone. And it was only available on singular wireless,

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Speaker 1: which meant that users would have to get locked into

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Speaker 1: a contract with a specific provider if they wanted to

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Speaker 1: use this technology. Also, during the demonstration itself, the phone

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Speaker 1: simply refused to operate as it was supposed to, and

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Speaker 1: Jobs got visibly irritated on stage. This presentation is still

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Speaker 1: available for you to watch on YouTube if you want to.

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Speaker 1: It's the Music event from two thousand and five. He

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Speaker 1: tried to show how the phone could pick up right

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Speaker 1: after you left off listening and was failing miserably and

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Speaker 1: made some comment akin too, well, if you can know

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Speaker 1: what buttons to push, you can make it work. The

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Speaker 1: iPod Nano, which Jobs also unveiled at that same event,

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Speaker 1: fared much better. It was in line with Apple's aesthetic

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Speaker 1: plus it you know, worked, Jobs suspected that phones were

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Speaker 1: going to be a big threat to the iPod business

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Speaker 1: before long. He was absolutely right. Phones already had cameras

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Speaker 1: in them and some rudimentary web browsers, though these were

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Speaker 1: mostly text based, and that was why he had agreed

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Speaker 1: to work with another company to create the so called

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Speaker 1: iTunes phone in the first place. It's the only reason

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Speaker 1: he agreed to it. But he saw that when things

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Speaker 1: were outside his control, he couldn't expect them to measure

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Speaker 1: up to his standards. So you could argue that the

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Speaker 1: lackluster demonstration of the Rocker in two thousand five is

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Speaker 1: what pushed Jobs to create a department within Apple to

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Speaker 1: develop the iPhone in the first place, although surely the

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Speaker 1: development process was already far enough along at that point. Now.

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Speaker 1: According to numerous sources and Apple itself, version five point

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Speaker 1: oh had some bugs in it that caused issues for

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Speaker 1: many users. The company issued a patch, but the full

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Speaker 1: version of iTunes six wouldn't be far behind. It would

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Speaker 1: release on October twelve, two thousand five, so essentially a

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Speaker 1: little more than a month after version five came out.

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Speaker 1: Version five in September, version six in October. So version

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Speaker 1: five added some features and made a few changes to

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Speaker 1: the user interface, but version six had a bit more

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Speaker 1: to offer, and that's when video would come to iTunes.

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Speaker 1: Starting with version six, users would be able to purchase

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Speaker 1: music videos or episodes of certain television shows for the

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Speaker 1: princely sum of a dollar ninety nine. And it was

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Speaker 1: a good idea, boosted by the fact that MTV, which

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Speaker 1: had built itself on top of showing music videos, had

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Speaker 1: started to drift away from videos in favor of other programming.

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Speaker 1: They had shown a decreasing amount of music video content

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Speaker 1: year over year for several years running by this point,

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Speaker 1: So now users would be able to watch music videos

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Speaker 1: on demand, purchasing them for a pretty low price and

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Speaker 1: keeping them forever. One thing did put a bit of

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Speaker 1: a monkey wrench into the works, and that was YouTube.

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Speaker 1: So in the early days of YouTube, this is back

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Speaker 1: when YouTube was first launching, users were uploading all sorts

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Speaker 1: of stuff to the service. You know, it was meant

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Speaker 1: to be a place where people would put user generated

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Speaker 1: content of whether it was home videos or sketches or

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Speaker 1: whatever it might be. But in the early days of YouTube,

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Speaker 1: it was mostly done by people who had no rights

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Speaker 1: to the videos they were uploading. They were uploading stuff

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Speaker 1: that didn't belong to them. It got YouTube and some

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Speaker 1: pretty hot water from various studios out there, music studios,

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Speaker 1: movie studios, TV studios, but that might have hurt music

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Speaker 1: video sales on iTunes because you could find a lot

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Speaker 1: of stuff on YouTube, though it wasn't guaranteed to stay

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Speaker 1: up for long. The TV shows, however, we're doing pretty well.

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Speaker 1: The videos also included short films by Pixar, which had

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Speaker 1: made several feature length computer animated films for Disney at

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Speaker 1: that point but had not yet officially joined with the

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Speaker 1: Mouse House yet, and Steve Jobs, by the way, was

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Speaker 1: a major shareholder in the company. Jobs had invested in

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Speaker 1: Pixar essentially right after it spun off from Lucasfilm years earlier,

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Speaker 1: so it was a great case of synergy there now.

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Speaker 1: According to lifewire, though to be clear, I didn't see

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Speaker 1: their source for where they got the statistic, Apple sold

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Speaker 1: one million videos within the first twenty days of iTunes

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Speaker 1: supporting video sales, which is not a bad start. But

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Speaker 1: this is also a good time to note that people

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Speaker 1: were starting to already notice some serious feature creep in iTunes,

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Speaker 1: something that would become a real issue as the software

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Speaker 1: would grow over the years. Eat your creep is when

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Speaker 1: product developers keep adding features to something beyond its original

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Speaker 1: intended purpose. In some cases, it might all work out,

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Speaker 1: like with the famous Swiss Army knife. You know you've

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Speaker 1: got a toothpick in there. Who thought that a knife

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Speaker 1: would need a toothpick? But it works for Swiss Army knife.

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Speaker 1: But in other cases you'll end up with a product

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Speaker 1: that's a total nightmare. It might quote unquote do a

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Speaker 1: hundred things, and maybe it doesn't do any of them

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Speaker 1: very well. That's the bad kind of feature creep. It's

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Speaker 1: part of what sidelined Copeland, which if you listen to

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Speaker 1: my last episode you'll recognize as the code name for

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Speaker 1: a version of the Mac operating system that never came

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Speaker 1: to be. With videos being added to iTunes, some people

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Speaker 1: begin to ask if, perhaps at the very least, Apple

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Speaker 1: should reconsider the name iTunes. After all, on iTunes you

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Speaker 1: could get music, but you could also get videos, e

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Speaker 1: books and podcasts. It seemed like either Apple should change

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Speaker 1: the name of the software to better reflect everything that

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Speaker 1: was available in it or break the program up into

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Speaker 1: more manageable applications, something will chat about at the end

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Speaker 1: of this episode, because that's ultimately what they have done.

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Speaker 1: The relatively simple interface of the earlier versions of iTunes

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Speaker 1: was beginning to get a little less simple. For some reason,

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Speaker 1: the company decided against either rebranding or restructuring iTunes, and

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Speaker 1: not for the last time either. Not entirely certain what

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Speaker 1: the logic was behind maintaining the iTunes name, because there

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Speaker 1: were other instances where Apple didn't seem particularly reluctant to

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Speaker 1: rebrand the service after they had changed it significantly, So

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Speaker 1: I don't know what was special about this one. Still

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Speaker 1: beyond a few critics who felt that iTunes was starting

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Speaker 1: to get a bit too bloated and messy, things were

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Speaker 1: going really well, and it laid the groundwork for the next,

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Speaker 1: really big revision to the platform. The seventh generation of

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Speaker 1: the iTunes program would come out in September two thousand six,

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Speaker 1: following in the footsteps of iTunes five, which would come

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Speaker 1: out the previous September. From here on out, Apple would

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Speaker 1: establish the fall as the time for announcements about things

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Speaker 1: like the iPhone, the iPod, and iTunes, although the iPhone

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Speaker 1: would have to wait for a couple more years it

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Speaker 1: had not yet been unveiled. Now you could download movies

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Speaker 1: using iTunes. Earlier it had all been music videos and

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Speaker 1: TV show episodes, but with iTunes seven you could do

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Speaker 1: movies as well. But that also added to the feature creep.

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Speaker 1: Criticisms people had for the program, but it became a

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Speaker 1: popular option. Now. I've got a lot more to say

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Speaker 1: about iTunes, but before I get into it, let's take

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Speaker 1: a quick break. One thing that iTunes seven would add

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Speaker 1: to the experience was a user interface upgrade in the

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Speaker 1: form of cover Flow. And this wasn't actually an Apple invention.

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Speaker 1: Much like iTunes itself, it was something that they had

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Speaker 1: seen from a different developer and and acquired it. It

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Speaker 1: was the work of an artist named Andrew Coulter in Right,

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Speaker 1: who came up with the idea of representing files in

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Speaker 1: a visual way in which you could flip back and

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Speaker 1: forth through them like a slide show. And Apple would

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Speaker 1: acquire cover Flow and then implemented it in iTunes seven

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Speaker 1: point oh, so that users could browse through their music

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Speaker 1: collection by album cover, sort of as if they were

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Speaker 1: standing at a shelf thumbing through all their record albums.

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Speaker 1: So you can kind of get the visual appeal, although

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Speaker 1: as I understand it, very few um iTunes users typically

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Speaker 1: talked a lot about using it because it could be

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a hassle. UM. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: That's anecdotal, Like I don't know if Apple ever gathered

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Speaker 1: any information about it, I do know that it wouldn't

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Speaker 1: hold on to cover flow forever. And later on Apple

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Speaker 1: would be involved in a patent infringement lawsuit against Mirror

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Speaker 1: World Technologies and later the parent company for the Mirror

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Speaker 1: World Technologies, which was Network One, and it was all

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Speaker 1: about cover Flow. At the heart of the matter was

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Speaker 1: a patent that described a system that organized documents in

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Speaker 1: a stream chronologically similar to the way that cover flow worked,

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Speaker 1: but the patent dated all the way back to so

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Speaker 1: it definitely predated the iTunes version of cover flow. While

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Speaker 1: the court case went back and forth in favor of

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Speaker 1: either one party or the other as it was making

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Speaker 1: its way through the court system, getting appealed and pushed

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Speaker 1: to higher and higher courts, the two parties would eventually

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Speaker 1: agree to a settlement that gave Apple a full license

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Speaker 1: to use the technology, and eventually Apple would phase out

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Speaker 1: to cover flow, because again, while it was really flashy,

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Speaker 1: it was not necessarily the most practical user interface. Other

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Speaker 1: features that joined the iTunes family with seven point oh

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Speaker 1: included gapless playback. This is pretty much what the name suggests.

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Speaker 1: It's playback of multiple tracks with no gaps between the songs. Now,

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Speaker 1: that isn't that big a deal between songs that have

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Speaker 1: clear endings and beginnings, but on some albums, one track

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Speaker 1: is supposed to flow directly into the beginning of the

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Speaker 1: next track, and again at between the two breaks up

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Speaker 1: the listening experience. If you want an example of this,

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Speaker 1: you should check out the songs this beat goes on

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Speaker 1: and switching to Glide by the Kings, which is one

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Speaker 1: of my favorite transitions between songs. But obviously there are

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Speaker 1: tons of examples out there in music, particularly on concept albums,

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Speaker 1: where a song will flow directly into the next one,

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Speaker 1: So gapless helped out a lot that way. iTunes seven

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Speaker 1: would remain the standard version for two years, with iTunes

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Speaker 1: eight premiering in two thousand eight. So this was unusual

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Speaker 1: because typically Apple was updating iTunes at least annually, if

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Speaker 1: not more than once a year. Because iTunes five and

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Speaker 1: six both appeared just within a month of each other,

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Speaker 1: but between two thousand six and two thousand and eight,

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Speaker 1: when iTunes seven was the standard, Apple would have another

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Speaker 1: big product announcement, which was, of course, the iPhone and

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Speaker 1: Macworld two thousand seven, Steve Jobs got up on stage

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Speaker 1: to introduce the iPhone, what he called a revolutionary product

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Speaker 1: that changes everything, and that's exactly what the iPhone turned

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Speaker 1: out to be. The sleek design, intuitive interface, and Apple's

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Speaker 1: software blew away the admittedly biased crowd of Mac fans

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Speaker 1: in the audience. It would be six months before the

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Speaker 1: phone came to market, but Apple clearly already had a

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Speaker 1: hit on its hands before even getting into the stores,

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Speaker 1: and iTunes would play a big part with the iPhone,

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Speaker 1: and the iPhone would play a large part of why

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Speaker 1: iTunes is now going away in twenty At the event,

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Speaker 1: Jobs explained that iPhone users would sink their phones with

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Speaker 1: their computers through iTunes, just like they would with an iPod.

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Speaker 1: He made the case that people were already used to

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Speaker 1: this idea as the company was getting ready to sell

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Speaker 1: it's one million iPod in two thousand seven. So from

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Speaker 1: the start, iTunes and the iPhone were linked, both metaphorically

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Speaker 1: and frequently physically. The original iPhone couldn't sync up with

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Speaker 1: a user's account of the air. Users would have to

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Speaker 1: place their phone in a docking station attached to their

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Speaker 1: computer and the phone would sync up using iTunes, so

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Speaker 1: you can make easy changes on your computer and then

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Speaker 1: sink it to your phone, rather than having to go

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Speaker 1: through your phone settings and change things that way. This

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Speaker 1: added yet more features two iTunes technically inversion seven point three,

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Speaker 1: that was the first version of iTunes to have iPhone support.

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Speaker 1: Version seven point four would add support for another new

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Speaker 1: Apple product, the iPod Touch, which, for those who might

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Speaker 1: not be familiar, was sort of an iPhone without the

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Speaker 1: phone part. The seventh generation of iTunes would go so

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Speaker 1: far as to support the second generation of the iPhones

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Speaker 1: operating system, which we now call iOS, with iTunes version

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Speaker 1: seven point seven, so version seven lasted long enough to

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Speaker 1: go through two different versions of the operating system for

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Speaker 1: the iPhone. In two thousand and eight, Apple finally released

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Speaker 1: a full new version of iTunes with iTunes eight, and

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Speaker 1: in this update, the company included a feature called i

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Speaker 1: Tunes Genius, which would generate a playlist based off a

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Speaker 1: song the user selected. Genius would actually consult massive amounts

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Speaker 1: of data in order to do this, And here's what

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Speaker 1: was going on from a very high level. All right,

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Speaker 1: Let's say you've got your music library there and you

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Speaker 1: want to put together a playlist for a chill party

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Speaker 1: of hipsters, but you don't really have the time to

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Speaker 1: dive through your massive music library to curate the perfect playlist. Instead,

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Speaker 1: you select one song to be the seed for this playlist,

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Speaker 1: and let's say it's waiting for Superman by the Flaming

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Speaker 1: Lips from your perspective. iTunes then pulls together a playlist

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Speaker 1: of songs for you based on that selection, and it

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Speaker 1: only takes an instant it's there almost immediately. But what's

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Speaker 1: actually going on is a bit more complicated. Apple would

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Speaker 1: take your data, including the information about all your songs

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Speaker 1: in your library, the genre those songs would belong to,

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Speaker 1: and how frequently you listen to each of those songs,

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Speaker 1: and then would compare your data against the information of

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Speaker 1: other iTunes genius users, and it would look for profiles

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Speaker 1: that had a similar library to yours and the sort

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Speaker 1: of things that they would tend to like. The Apple

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Speaker 1: hasn't really revealed how it was weighing different variables, how

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Speaker 1: it would assign weight to those variables, like how prevalent

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Speaker 1: at particular genre is in any given library. How much

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Speaker 1: does that matter? If my music library is eighty percent

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Speaker 1: country music, then how much importance does the Genius algorithm

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Speaker 1: give to the country genre? Uh? Or how does listening

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Speaker 1: frequency affected? If I've listened to one particular song, let's

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Speaker 1: say Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, and I've listened

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Speaker 1: to it five times as many times as the next

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Speaker 1: closest song, then how much does that determine whether or

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Speaker 1: not it shows up on a playlist? Those things were secrets,

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Speaker 1: but it did use comparisons to draw conclusions about which

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Speaker 1: songs would best match up to create a playlist of

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Speaker 1: your choice. And it could also suggest songs in the

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Speaker 1: iTunes music store that seemed to fit your preferences, but

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Speaker 1: that weren't already in your library. So maybe it looks

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Speaker 1: at your playlist and it says, oh, well, based on this,

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Speaker 1: you should definitely have this other song, but you don't

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Speaker 1: actually own this one yet. Here's a link if you

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Speaker 1: would like to buy it, and you can listen to

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Speaker 1: a preview and decide whether or not you want to

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Speaker 1: add it to your library. In a way it's a

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Speaker 1: little similar to what services like Pandora Radio we're already

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Speaker 1: doing since two thousand five. Pandora Radio's method was to

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Speaker 1: take songs and then break them down by describing them

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Speaker 1: in as many different ways as possible. You take a

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Speaker 1: piece of music and you say, all right, what are

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Speaker 1: the different qualities of this music? So you might have

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Speaker 1: ways of describing it saying there's a female vocalist, it

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Speaker 1: has a complicated rhyme scheme, it's guitar driven, it's got

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Speaker 1: a fast tempo, and so on. Then the radio algorithm

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Speaker 1: would search for other songs in this database there were

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Speaker 1: somewhat similar to the seed song you had selected, and

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Speaker 1: then it would feed those extra songs to the user,

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Speaker 1: And that gave opportunity for users to discover new music

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Speaker 1: that fit their tastes. Maybe they'd hear a song that

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Speaker 1: they've never heard before, but they'll love it because it

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Speaker 1: happens to fall into the same sort of stuff that

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Speaker 1: they already listened to. So Apple wasn't necessarily innovating in

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Speaker 1: this space, but rather incorporating a working strategy into the

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Speaker 1: existing iTunes framework, which is something the company is particularly

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Speaker 1: strong at at identifying things that work well and then

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Speaker 1: improving upon them. In addition to the Genius feature, iTunes

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Speaker 1: eight also made available TV shows in HD format in

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Speaker 1: the iTunes store, and the store continued to contribute a

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Speaker 1: significant percentage of Apple's overall revenue, and it wasn't just

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Speaker 1: affecting Apple. The company announced in April two eight that

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Speaker 1: customers had purchased more than four billion songs from the

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Speaker 1: ituned music store since its launch, making Apple the largest

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Speaker 1: music retailer, beating out Walmart at least according to Apple's

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Speaker 1: own press release. Other reports would state that Apple held

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Speaker 1: a strong second place behind Walmart. So your mileage may

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00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:08,360
Speaker 1: vary on that particular point. It would eventually replace Walmart

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Speaker 1: one way or the other. Question is just as when

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Speaker 1: did that really happen and the pace was picking up.

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Speaker 1: It was four billion songs when the company made this

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Speaker 1: announcement in April of that year, but then in June,

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Speaker 1: just a few months later, the company reported that the

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Speaker 1: number of songs sold now topped more than five billion,

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Speaker 1: which is incredible that it's it's an amazing achievement to

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Speaker 1: have gone from four to five billion in just a

436
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,199
Speaker 1: couple of months. The closest competitor online with Apple in

437
00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:40,120
Speaker 1: the music department at that time was Amazon, which had

438
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:42,960
Speaker 1: only been selling digital music downloads for about nine months.

439
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:47,600
Speaker 1: When Apple hit that five billion songs sold milestone, Amazon

440
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 1: sales were about a tenth of Apples, But it is

441
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:51,679
Speaker 1: fair to point out that Apple had been in the

442
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,560
Speaker 1: business for five years at that point and Amazon had

443
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 1: just gotten started. Business was going really well. In fact,

444
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,280
Speaker 1: it was enough to get discussions going in various state

445
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: governments in the US about the prospect of taxing iTunes

446
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 1: digital downloads. The concept faced a lot of opposition, particularly

447
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: in California, not by not by coincidence that happens to

448
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 1: be where Apple has its headquarters. But gradually many states

449
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:20,240
Speaker 1: would pass legislation allowing them to collect taxes on digital purchases.

450
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:24,800
Speaker 1: Not all of them would cover iTunes store purchases. It's

451
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,240
Speaker 1: a state by state sort of thing, but New Jersey

452
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: would be the first to do so. Actually, the Garden

453
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,200
Speaker 1: State technically had done it in two thousand and seven,

454
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: before any of this other stuff was happening. Version nine

455
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:39,120
Speaker 1: of iTunes would come out in September two thousand nine.

456
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 1: Once again, Apple introduced new features with their increasingly gargantuan

457
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 1: digital jukebox program. One of those was the iTunes LP feature.

458
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 1: It's sort of like the bonus features on a DVD.

459
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,159
Speaker 1: For some albums, you could get lots of bonus stuff

460
00:25:55,160 --> 00:26:00,160
Speaker 1: like music videos, live concert footage, liner notes, artists, interviews,

461
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:02,639
Speaker 1: and more. So it was kind of like getting a

462
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,119
Speaker 1: whole bunch of collectors editions stuff with your album purchase.

463
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 1: For certain albums, not all of them had this. Similarly,

464
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:14,359
Speaker 1: Apple introduced iTunes Extras, which had bonus features for some

465
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,920
Speaker 1: films available on iTunes, so you could get deleted scenes

466
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 1: and interviews and stuff like that when you downloaded your

467
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: digital copy of let's say Batman Begins. That was one

468
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 1: of the first movies to feature these extra things, and

469
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 1: you would just you buy it from the iTunes store

470
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:30,679
Speaker 1: and along with the film, you would get access to

471
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:35,000
Speaker 1: this extra material. Another new feature was home sharing, which

472
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,919
Speaker 1: would allow iTunes users to share their libraries on up

473
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:41,159
Speaker 1: to five computers within a household. Each person in the

474
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:44,120
Speaker 1: household with an iTunes library could do the same with

475
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 1: the others, so the shared library could grow much more quickly,

476
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,240
Speaker 1: and I'm sure it was a popular feature for folks

477
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 1: who are living with housemates. Apple discontinued home sharing. Starting

478
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 1: with iTunes version twelve point two, Apple also added in

479
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: app management and sinking features and iTunes nine to let

480
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 1: users arrange their app layouts, which then could transfer over

481
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: to their iPhone upon sinking with the computer. One thing

482
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 1: that Apple would take out of the music on the

483
00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:18,280
Speaker 1: iTunes Store starting with iTunes nine was DRM, or Digital

484
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: Rights Management. Apple had already negotiated with music label E

485
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:25,399
Speaker 1: m I to remove DRM from that labels music on

486
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:28,120
Speaker 1: the store a couple of years earlier, but everyone else

487
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: still had DRM attached. In two thousand nine, the company

488
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,960
Speaker 1: was able to remove it from all the music in

489
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: its store, and Steve Jobs had been an outspoken critic

490
00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 1: of DRM, but it took some time for Apple to

491
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,680
Speaker 1: actually ditch it. Amazon had already been selling digital music

492
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:48,400
Speaker 1: DRM free for some time. That to be fair, Amazon's

493
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 1: foul format was MP three, while Apple was using A

494
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,640
Speaker 1: A C files that were at least marketed as being

495
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: higher in quality. So you were balancing things out. Did

496
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:02,040
Speaker 1: you want higher quality music but with DRM, or did

497
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 1: you want the lower quality arguably recordings but without DRM.

498
00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: Now as a concession of music labels, Apple also agreed

499
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:15,440
Speaker 1: to introducing variable pricing on music tracks, because before all

500
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 1: songs cost nine cents. It didn't matter if the song

501
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 1: was three minutes long or twelve minutes long, it was

502
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:23,600
Speaker 1: all ninety nine cents. But this agreement would allow labels

503
00:28:23,600 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 1: to select a price of either sixty nine cents, ninety

504
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 1: nine cents or a dollar twenty nine per song. And

505
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,760
Speaker 1: if you wanted to upgrade your library with DRM free music,

506
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,159
Speaker 1: you had to pay for it. In fact, it was

507
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: thirty cents a song or sixty cents for an album,

508
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: and I imagine that would get pretty expensive if you

509
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: had a really big music library. Later, this would be

510
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,480
Speaker 1: replaced by a service called itune Match, which i'll talk

511
00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: about a little later in this podcast. First, I'm gonna

512
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,520
Speaker 1: go and drink a nice big cup of tea, and

513
00:28:54,560 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 1: we'll be right back after this break. All right, we're

514
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,080
Speaker 1: in the home stretch. So iTunes had been criticized for

515
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,040
Speaker 1: a long time for the fact that it was getting

516
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:15,360
Speaker 1: too big and unwieldy to be useful, particularly for Windows users.

517
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,360
Speaker 1: Now I've used iTunes on both Windows and Mac machines,

518
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: and anecdotally, which I realized is not really evidence, I

519
00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:26,320
Speaker 1: can tell you that in my experience. Using it on

520
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: a Mac, while not perfect, was way easier than using

521
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 1: it on Windows, and anyone who has had iTunes installed

522
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 1: knows how it can place a really big demand on

523
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: computer resources. But things were about to get even more

524
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 1: messy with iTunes ten, the last version to release during

525
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: Steve jobs lifetime he would pass away in the flagship

526
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 1: app from Apple got a bit of a makeover until

527
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 1: version ten. The logo for iTunes was a c D

528
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,040
Speaker 1: with a pair of eighth notes on it. After all,

529
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,360
Speaker 1: back when the first version of iTunes came out, that's

530
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:04,479
Speaker 1: the narrative Apple relied upon. The idea was that users

531
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: would rip music from their store bought c d s

532
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:12,920
Speaker 1: and create a digital jukebox on their Mac computers. But

533
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 1: the CD was a bit of an outdated symbol by

534
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: this point, and the updated logo was a simple pair

535
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:22,080
Speaker 1: of musical eighth notes on a circular blue background. There

536
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 1: was no more c D in the background. But the

537
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 1: feature that got a lot of attention, and most of

538
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:30,959
Speaker 1: it was not really positive, was the addition of a

539
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 1: new social networking element in the iTunes program called Ping.

540
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:38,880
Speaker 1: The purpose of Ping was to make it easier for

541
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: users to share with one another. You could share information

542
00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,880
Speaker 1: about your favorite artists, your favorite albums, You could share

543
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 1: your thoughts about live shows you had attended. You could

544
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 1: also view concert listings in your area, and you could

545
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 1: indicate which shows you hoped to go see. The idea

546
00:30:55,720 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: was to extend iTunes out to be a more social

547
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:02,840
Speaker 1: experience of my users. That people like to talk about

548
00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:05,240
Speaker 1: their music collections and find out what their friends are

549
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 1: listening to and find out what they're artists that they

550
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 1: love what they're listening to, And in fact, you could

551
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: do that with ping. At least in theory, you could

552
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: follow artists, and the artists were encouraged to post to

553
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: the social platform and share information about their experiences and

554
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 1: what sort of music they enjoyed. So in theory it

555
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: was all a pretty decent idea. Apple would encourage discover ability,

556
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 1: it would bring more value to the experience of using iTunes,

557
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 1: and ultimately it would help sell more tracks to users

558
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,240
Speaker 1: because you would encounter new music, or you'd find out

559
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: that your favorite artist happens to be a big fan

560
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:39,760
Speaker 1: of this obscure artist and you think, well, that's got

561
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 1: to be interesting, and you go out and you buy

562
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: out all of their stuff. There was one big problem.

563
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 1: Nobody was using Ping, at least, not enough people to

564
00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: justify continuing the service. So why did Ping fail? One

565
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:56,240
Speaker 1: big reason might have to do with another social platform,

566
00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: everybody's favorite monopoly, Facebook. The rumor was that Apple had

567
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:06,840
Speaker 1: originally included Facebook interoperability in Paying. Users would be able

568
00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 1: to share their paying activity directly to their Facebook pages,

569
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 1: and that made sense because everybody was already over at Facebook.

570
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: That's where all your friends already were, so this would

571
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:22,320
Speaker 1: help attract people who weren't using paying, but who were

572
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: on Facebook, and then they would see this service and

573
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: the notifications and think, oh, I should check that out.

574
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:33,000
Speaker 1: But before Paying could even launch, something changed, and the

575
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: story I've heard most frequently is that Facebook pulled support

576
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: from the app, that this was a decision on Facebook's point,

577
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 1: not on Apples, and that it was possibly in an

578
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: effort to avoid helping give a boost up to a

579
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: potential competitor, so you could argue it was an anti

580
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:54,239
Speaker 1: competitive move. Ping failed to gain any real traction and

581
00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 1: didn't survive to make it to iTunes eleven, which launched

582
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 1: in two thousand twelve. So was it a terror experience? Well,

583
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:04,640
Speaker 1: I can't say from a personal perspective, as I actually

584
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:07,800
Speaker 1: never used it. I never really heard anyone bash it,

585
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I never heard anyone say

586
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:14,000
Speaker 1: anything positive about it either. It just sort of was

587
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 1: and then it really wasn't. In addition to paying, iTunes

588
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 1: ten would introduce Airplay. That's the updated version of the

589
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 1: earlier feature called air tunes that I mentioned. With air Tunes,

590
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 1: users could stream music from their iTunes PC to another

591
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,719
Speaker 1: WiFi connected device on their network. Airplay would work very

592
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 1: much the same way, except it would eventually include video media.

593
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 1: Apple also had more products that were compatible with Airplay

594
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,040
Speaker 1: at this point, so they were able to sell those

595
00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 1: as well. The third thing that iTunes tend introduced, though

596
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 1: it would only be fully implemented in iTunes eleven, was

597
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:55,240
Speaker 1: iTunes Match. I also mentioned this earlier. So this service

598
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 1: was to address the fact that we were shifting away

599
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: from having a centralized personal comput uter as the hub

600
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:04,840
Speaker 1: for all our entertainment. You know, back when iTunes launched

601
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,480
Speaker 1: in two thousand one, that was how things worked. You

602
00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 1: would have your Mac computer, you probably have just the

603
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,879
Speaker 1: one Mac computer, and you would have it act as

604
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:16,480
Speaker 1: the home for all your digital media and in those

605
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:19,720
Speaker 1: early days that was pretty much just music or maybe

606
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 1: audio books as well. If you wanted to burn a

607
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: CD or load songs onto an MP three player, you

608
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: would do it by using that machine. You would burn CDs,

609
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 1: and that machines CD burner. You would connect your MP

610
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,160
Speaker 1: V player to that machine. Everything was centralized to that

611
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 1: one gadget. But by two thousand eleven things were different.

612
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 1: Now with cloud services and cloud storage, we could have

613
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:47,480
Speaker 1: all our stuff living on computers that are out on

614
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,440
Speaker 1: the internet somewhere. Sure, it wasn't sitting on our computer

615
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,799
Speaker 1: at home unless we chose to download everything. But the

616
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 1: flip side was that if we were using any device

617
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: to access our cloud account, we'd get access to all

618
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 1: of that content. So if I got a brand new phone,

619
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:05,400
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to sink it with my home computer

620
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,759
Speaker 1: and slowly poured over my entire music collection or go

621
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: through and figure out which songs I wanted and which

622
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 1: ones I didn't. I could just access my library of

623
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: music in the cloud anyway. iTunes Match is a sort

624
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:22,319
Speaker 1: of a solution to a practical problem. See if you

625
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 1: had purchased your music straight from the iTunes music store,

626
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:29,120
Speaker 1: Apple knew about it and those songs would automatically be

627
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 1: in your cloud library because Apple had a record of

628
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 1: you buying them. But what if you had ripped songs

629
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:36,399
Speaker 1: from a CD and then you had them in your

630
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,200
Speaker 1: library that way, or what if you had downloaded from

631
00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:42,719
Speaker 1: some other source like band camp or something, And what

632
00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,359
Speaker 1: if and I know this is scandalous, but what if

633
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:49,919
Speaker 1: you had pirated music? Well, iTunes Match would scan all

634
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,799
Speaker 1: the music in your iTunes library and it would look

635
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: for matches in the Apple database. When it found matches,

636
00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,399
Speaker 1: it would be the matched version that would join your

637
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:03,000
Speaker 1: cloud library. Not only that, the version of the matched

638
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 1: songs in the cloud would be encoded to a high

639
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:09,319
Speaker 1: quality two six killabits per second a a C file,

640
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 1: and they would be DRM free. So let's say you

641
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:15,319
Speaker 1: had bought a song in the early days of the

642
00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:18,200
Speaker 1: iTunes music store. It would have been encoded at a

643
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:22,359
Speaker 1: killabits per second, so lower bit rate, and it would

644
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 1: have also had DRM on it. Your cloud version would

645
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 1: be higher quality and DRM free, so you could end

646
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,200
Speaker 1: up with songs that actually sounded better than the ones

647
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 1: that were on your physical hard drive when you enabled

648
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:37,680
Speaker 1: iTunes match. For those songs that were in your library,

649
00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 1: but we're not in the Apple database. In other words,

650
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:42,719
Speaker 1: Apple did not have the rights to that music. They

651
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,120
Speaker 1: scan their database to say, well, you know, we don't

652
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:48,279
Speaker 1: offer this track. You got it some other way. It

653
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:52,200
Speaker 1: would then upload those songs, and only those songs from

654
00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 1: your computer to your cloud library. That would help guarantee

655
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: that users would have access to their full library of music,

656
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:01,520
Speaker 1: but also cut down on data transfer requirements to make

657
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:03,920
Speaker 1: it happen. You don't have to upload everything, just the

658
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: songs that Apple doesn't already have. The services subscription based,

659
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:11,000
Speaker 1: and it launched at about twenty five dollars per year.

660
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,880
Speaker 1: If your subscription were two lapse, you would lose access

661
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:16,520
Speaker 1: to those songs, though they would still be on whatever

662
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 1: hard drive they were stored on, and Apple would allow

663
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:22,440
Speaker 1: users to download their cloud library to a Mac or PC,

664
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:24,920
Speaker 1: so you could create a backup first before allowing your

665
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:27,560
Speaker 1: subscription to LIMP to end, and you would end up

666
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,160
Speaker 1: with the higher quality versions of your songs, at least

667
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:33,840
Speaker 1: for the ones that Apple actually had copies of. Steve

668
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:37,919
Speaker 1: Jobs gave that presentation about iTunes Match, but not long

669
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 1: after that he would pass away, and his passing was

670
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 1: felt by the entire industry. Not just at Apple, and

671
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 1: many people were wondering how the company would carry on

672
00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:49,960
Speaker 1: without the iconic leader at the home. One thing that

673
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:53,080
Speaker 1: shook up the company in two thousand eleven, besides the

674
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,520
Speaker 1: death of their founder, was a report from the Telegraph

675
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,800
Speaker 1: that a security vulnerability in iTunes had given a British

676
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,680
Speaker 1: bunny the opportunity to create software that exploited that vulnerability.

677
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 1: The company called Gamma International created what appeared to be

678
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:12,759
Speaker 1: a software update to iTunes, like a security update, but

679
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:16,400
Speaker 1: in fact it was essentially malware that would hack the

680
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:20,560
Speaker 1: person's iTunes account. The Telegraph reported that Apple had been

681
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:23,400
Speaker 1: aware of this vulnerability since two thousand and eight, but

682
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,640
Speaker 1: had failed to patch it until two thousand eleven, so

683
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:30,960
Speaker 1: that wasn't great news. In two thousand twelve, Apple introduced

684
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,279
Speaker 1: iTunes eleven. Boy did this stir up a hornet's nest.

685
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:39,800
Speaker 1: They paired that announcement with announcements about the iPhone five

686
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 1: and the iOS version six that came out that same year.

687
00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:47,319
Speaker 1: But this version of iTunes featured a brand new interface,

688
00:38:47,719 --> 00:38:50,600
Speaker 1: overhauling the way iTunes had looked for ages. It also

689
00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:52,960
Speaker 1: got rid of a navigation bar that had been part

690
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: of iTunes for years, which frustrated a lot of users.

691
00:38:55,520 --> 00:39:00,040
Speaker 1: People really didn't like the way this change may it

692
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:03,239
Speaker 1: more difficult for them to navigate through their collections and

693
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 1: to go from things like music to TV two podcasts.

694
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:10,440
Speaker 1: The program now allowed for a sink listening or viewing experience,

695
00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:12,480
Speaker 1: which meant that you could listen to an album or

696
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:16,080
Speaker 1: watch a show on one iTunes connected device, You could

697
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:18,520
Speaker 1: pause it, you could go to a different device connected

698
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 1: to that same iTunes account, and you could pick up

699
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:23,400
Speaker 1: right where you left off. So if you were listening

700
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,239
Speaker 1: on your phone when you were walking home and you

701
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:28,759
Speaker 1: walk through the door, you switch it over so that

702
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:31,800
Speaker 1: your computer is using airplay to play it through your

703
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 1: WiFi connected speakers. It picks up right where you left

704
00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:37,919
Speaker 1: off when you're listening on your phone. Uh. This version

705
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,080
Speaker 1: of iTunes was also the official end to ping. Ping

706
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 1: was done, and it only lasted a little less than

707
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:47,759
Speaker 1: two years. Really, UM and Apple kind of abandoned it,

708
00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:52,440
Speaker 1: and it also had iCloud integration built into it. In

709
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen, the company would release the last

710
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:59,879
Speaker 1: major update to iTunes iTunes twelve, and this one got

711
00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:03,760
Speaker 1: pretty harsh criticism as well. When it came out once again.

712
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:08,520
Speaker 1: Apple made big changes to the user interface. Uh, they

713
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:10,799
Speaker 1: did not go back to the old user interface. They

714
00:40:10,880 --> 00:40:15,480
Speaker 1: changed it more. They removed the sidebar again. If you

715
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:18,320
Speaker 1: had put it in with iTunes eleven, it was gone again,

716
00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:21,440
Speaker 1: making it pretty difficult to add back in. You could

717
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,320
Speaker 1: do it manually, but it usually it would require you

718
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:25,919
Speaker 1: to do a quick search on the internet to figure

719
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,719
Speaker 1: out the steps you needed to follow. The playback bar

720
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:31,400
Speaker 1: has changed as well. In general, a lot of users

721
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 1: looked at the changes and said that the control and

722
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,320
Speaker 1: menu system was actually less intuitive and useful as a result.

723
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 1: Not everyone hated the changes, but the people who did

724
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 1: hate them really hated them, and they wrote long, detailed

725
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:48,680
Speaker 1: posts on the Internet about why the changes were possibly

726
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:52,399
Speaker 1: the worst thing ever. And I exaggerate a little bit

727
00:40:52,440 --> 00:40:54,840
Speaker 1: with that, but I did come across one article that

728
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:59,840
Speaker 1: legit stated categorically that iTunes twelve was the worst soft

729
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,799
Speaker 1: Apple ever released and that it should be recalled. And

730
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: I came across more than a couple that gave instructions

731
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:09,360
Speaker 1: on how users could roll back their version of iTunes

732
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,640
Speaker 1: to an earlier version. So that's never good to read

733
00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:16,080
Speaker 1: if you're releasing software. Oh and this is also when

734
00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:19,520
Speaker 1: Apple gifted every iTunes user with a copy of the

735
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 1: YouTube album Song of Innocence, whether they wanted a copy

736
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:26,120
Speaker 1: of it or not. Lots of people complained that the

737
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 1: album was taking a valuable storage space on their devices,

738
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:33,720
Speaker 1: particularly on iPhones, and also that it wasn't actually easy

739
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 1: to get rid of the album. That eventually prompted Bono

740
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:40,319
Speaker 1: from You two to actually apologize publicly for the whole

741
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,400
Speaker 1: goof them up, and Apple would eventually let users delete

742
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: the album more easily. An update to iTunes twelve integrated

743
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:52,320
Speaker 1: support with Apple Music, that is, Apple's music streaming subscription service.

744
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:54,440
Speaker 1: So here we get to the point where Apple is

745
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:56,920
Speaker 1: doing the thing that Steve Jobs said no one wanted

746
00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,839
Speaker 1: to do more than a decade earlier, though obviously things

747
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 1: that changed significantly within those intervening years. So for ten

748
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,840
Speaker 1: dollars a month, you could sign up and listen to

749
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:12,880
Speaker 1: music streaming on demand from Apple's entire database, and you

750
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 1: could also listen to music that had been curated for

751
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:18,520
Speaker 1: you based upon your tastes as defined by your own

752
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:22,319
Speaker 1: personal music library in the cloud. And that is how

753
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:25,279
Speaker 1: it works today. So from two thousand fourteen to two

754
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen. iTunes twelve would continue to grow and add

755
00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:32,440
Speaker 1: more support for features like Apple Music, but the behemoth

756
00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:36,320
Speaker 1: was really out of control. It was impossible to deny

757
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:39,720
Speaker 1: that the software had grown too large, and that trying

758
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,719
Speaker 1: to keep the same aesthetic across multiple windows owned and

759
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,799
Speaker 1: operated by different teams with an Apple seemed like a

760
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:49,720
Speaker 1: fool's Errand in addition, the consumer trend of moving towards

761
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: streaming services instead of purchasing copies of media meant the

762
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:56,200
Speaker 1: the iTunes store was starting to flag a bit. The

763
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 1: sales were starting to drop off, so the writing was

764
00:42:59,239 --> 00:43:02,520
Speaker 1: on the wall. Digital downloads are starting to follow the

765
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:06,279
Speaker 1: same trend as CDs and DVDs, so it made more

766
00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:09,840
Speaker 1: sense for Apple to discontinue iTunes and focus on breaking

767
00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:13,239
Speaker 1: up those services into three dedicated apps, which is what

768
00:43:13,239 --> 00:43:17,200
Speaker 1: we're getting now. The successors to iTunes are the apps

769
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:21,520
Speaker 1: Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts, very similar to

770
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 1: what is already on iOS devices. The company has assured

771
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 1: customers that their music libraries will remain intact during this transition.

772
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:33,120
Speaker 1: All music purchased or transferred to iTunes will be in

773
00:43:33,160 --> 00:43:36,319
Speaker 1: the Apple Music app, including playlists, so none of that

774
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:40,040
Speaker 1: is going away. Movies and TV shows will similarly be

775
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 1: available on the Apple TV app. The podcast you subscribe

776
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:46,879
Speaker 1: to will be on surprise surprise, the Apple Podcast app,

777
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:49,400
Speaker 1: and Audio books will actually move over to the Apple

778
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:53,120
Speaker 1: Books apps, so everything is getting split up. To interface

779
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 1: between a computer and iOS device like the iPhone or

780
00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:00,480
Speaker 1: iPad will now require you to use the Mac Finder

781
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:04,240
Speaker 1: to do that, so you wouldn't use iTunes anymore. Mac

782
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 1: Finder is now the the overlaying application you use to

783
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 1: synchronize between a device and a computer. The next version

784
00:44:13,560 --> 00:44:17,240
Speaker 1: of Mac os Catalina will have no support for iTunes,

785
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:19,919
Speaker 1: so this is Apple getting users prepared for a big

786
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 1: change now. Personally, I think this is the right move,

787
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,719
Speaker 1: though it's got the potential to be really confusing for

788
00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:29,719
Speaker 1: existing iTunes customers who use Mac computers. There are a

789
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:31,880
Speaker 1: lot of questions being asked, and to Apple's credit, the

790
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:34,759
Speaker 1: company is answering them over time, but I think it's

791
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 1: hard to defend a piece of software the group so

792
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 1: far beyond its original purpose. As for iTunes on Windows,

793
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 1: there are no specific plans from the company as of

794
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 1: the recording of this podcast to discontinue it I don't

795
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,560
Speaker 1: know if they'll continue to support it, but there are

796
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:54,560
Speaker 1: no plans on it going away. Also, the store element

797
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:56,839
Speaker 1: will still be there in the individual apps. You'll still

798
00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:58,920
Speaker 1: be able to shop for stuff and download stuff if

799
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 1: you want to. Although a lot more people are now

800
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:05,200
Speaker 1: just streaming things and not bothering to buy them at all.

801
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,200
Speaker 1: I know that's how I am. I haven't. I can't

802
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:11,279
Speaker 1: remember the last album I bought. It might have been

803
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:13,919
Speaker 1: the soundtrack to Hades Town. I did buy that one

804
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:18,719
Speaker 1: because it was so incredible, but beyond that, I mean

805
00:45:18,719 --> 00:45:21,800
Speaker 1: that was like a one off, special thing. I usually

806
00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 1: end up streaming stuff because that's just convenient, and I'm

807
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: almost always somewhere where there's an Internet connection. The only

808
00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 1: times when I regret going that route or when I'm

809
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:34,520
Speaker 1: on an airplane and I can't connect to WiFi and

810
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:40,120
Speaker 1: then I regret not having downloaded more stuff to my devices.

811
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:43,880
Speaker 1: But that's that's a rare case. Otherwise, I'm just streaming

812
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:47,440
Speaker 1: everything just like everybody else. So Apple was making a

813
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:50,319
Speaker 1: move that makes a lot of sense. You can't really

814
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:53,160
Speaker 1: fault the company for doing it. It is weird to

815
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:57,759
Speaker 1: see a an app that has been around for half

816
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:01,400
Speaker 1: my life now going away, but at the same time,

817
00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:05,719
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling particularly sad about it. iTunes and I

818
00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:09,040
Speaker 1: have always had a love hate relationship. I loved being

819
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:15,040
Speaker 1: able to synchronize between a device and a computer and

820
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:17,440
Speaker 1: get all that stuff on an m P three player.

821
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 1: I hated just about everything else with iTunes. I loved

822
00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:25,040
Speaker 1: getting my show featured on iTunes. That was always wonderful.

823
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:28,360
Speaker 1: It was very flattering, and it definitely helped bring listeners

824
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:32,399
Speaker 1: to the show. For that, I'm always thankful. But when

825
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:34,480
Speaker 1: I used it was using iTunes, I never felt like

826
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:38,400
Speaker 1: it was the easiest to navigate around, particularly from version

827
00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:41,360
Speaker 1: to version where things would change so dramatically where you

828
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:43,759
Speaker 1: have to relearn where everything is in order to get

829
00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:47,920
Speaker 1: stuff done. Um, it's interesting that the same company that

830
00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:51,800
Speaker 1: can make such an intuitive user interface with the iOS

831
00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:57,359
Speaker 1: devices also made a desktop application that got progressively more

832
00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:00,520
Speaker 1: difficult to use, at least for me. Then again, I'm

833
00:47:00,520 --> 00:47:03,279
Speaker 1: also old, so new things confuse me more and more

834
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:07,480
Speaker 1: every year. All right, Well, that wraps up this set

835
00:47:07,560 --> 00:47:11,240
Speaker 1: of episodes about iTunes. I plan on doing an update

836
00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:15,680
Speaker 1: about how stuff works in the next episode because I

837
00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:18,440
Speaker 1: got a listener request for it. And uh, it's been

838
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:20,680
Speaker 1: a couple of years since I talked about how Stuff Works,

839
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:23,600
Speaker 1: and you guys might be curious to know what's been

840
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:26,319
Speaker 1: going on and how things have changed. You know, I

841
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:29,200
Speaker 1: say that I'm an executive producer with How Stuff Works

842
00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:32,600
Speaker 1: in my Heart Radio, But what does that actually mean. Well,

843
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,200
Speaker 1: I'll explain all that. I'll explain what the company is

844
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:38,640
Speaker 1: doing now in the next episode. Hopefully you'll you'll find

845
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 1: that interesting because you know, these are people who are

846
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:44,280
Speaker 1: near and dear to my heart. Some of them are

847
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:47,600
Speaker 1: co workers and some of them are former co workers.

848
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,279
Speaker 1: But I'll explain more in that next episode. If you

849
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:52,799
Speaker 1: have suggestions for future episodes, you can send me an

850
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:56,520
Speaker 1: email the addresses tech stuff at how stuff Works dot com.

851
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 1: You can drop on by our website that's tech stuff

852
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,480
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. You'll find an archive of all of

853
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:04,400
Speaker 1: our past shows. There. You also find links to the

854
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:07,040
Speaker 1: social media presence for the show, as well as a

855
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,719
Speaker 1: link to our online store, where every purchasing make goes

856
00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:12,400
Speaker 1: to help our show and we greatly appreciate it, and

857
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:19,839
Speaker 1: I will talk to you again really soon. Ye hext

858
00:48:19,840 --> 00:48:22,480
Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.

859
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:25,480
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heeart Radio, visit the I

860
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,839
Speaker 1: heart radio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to

861
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:29,800
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.