iTunes Store: The world’s #1 music store is about much more than just music. Shop for movies, TV shows, apps, games, and books. Load up on podcasts. And check out iTunes U, where you can download lectures, videos, and more from top universities, museums, and other cultural institutions.
The list goes on. And on.

On the iTunes Store, some of our favorite content takes center stage. Glance at the shelves to see what’s new and what’s popular. Check out the latest movie trailers. Give the best-selling book titles a look. Visit artist pages to see all their work, photos, concert dates, and more. There’s no better, or easier, way to cruise the aisles.

History:

Since its launch, the iTunes Store has crossed many milestones. In the first 18 hours, the store sold about 275 000 tracks and more than 1 000 000 in its first 5 days. When released for Windows in October 2003, iTunes was downloaded more than 1 000 000 times in the first 3 days, selling more than 1 000 000 songs in that period. On December 15, 2003, Apple announced that it had sold 25 million songs.

In January 2004 at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced (Sellers, 2004) that an unnamed person had purchased US $29 500 worth of music. On March 15, 2004, Apple announced that iTunes Music Store customers had purchased and downloaded 50 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. A song sold on iTunes gives the artist 9 cents in profit. They also reported that customers were purchasing 2.5 million songs a week which translates to a projected annual run rate of 130 million songs a year. The 50 millionth song was "The Path of Thorns" by Sarah McLachlan.

On April 28, 2004, the iTunes Music Store marked its first anniversary with 70 million songs sold, clear dominance in the paid online music market and a slight profit. The store also offers hundreds of movie trailers and music videos, in an attempt to boost soundtrack sales. In the conference, Steve Jobs reiterated that a subscription service is still not in the interest of customers and reported that only 5 million of the 100 million songs offered in the Pepsi giveaway campaign were redeemed, which he blamed on technical problems in Pepsi distribution. According to an Apple press release dated August 10, 2004, the iTunes Music Store was the first store to have a catalog of more than one million songs. Also, the iTunes Music Store at that point maintained a 70 percent market share of legal music downloads.

The emerging monopoly of the store has been criticised by Mike Lang of Miramax for "effectively strangling the industry". He says that because the music industry has allowed too few content providers, it is now suffering. Lang views the issue as being more of a threat than music piracy.