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iTunes
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iTunes
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| Developer | Apple |
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| Launched | January 9, 2001 ("Rip. Mix. Burn.") |
| Retired | macOS Catalina (2019) · Windows successors (2023–24) |
| Succeeded by | Apple Music · Apple TV · Apple Podcasts · Finder sync |
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iTunes was the program that organized the digital-music revolution: Apple's jukebox app of 2001, the iPod's other half, home of the iTunes Store — and eventually the most overloaded piece of software Apple ever shipped, managing music, movies, podcasts, apps, backups, and device sync in one aging window.
1 Rise and sprawl✎
Built from the acquired SoundJam MP, iTunes turned CD ripping into a mainstream act and the iPod into a phenomenon; the 2003 Store made it the world's record shop. Success kept adding cargo — video, podcasts, the App Store era's app syncing, iPhone backups — until "it does everything" became the complaint. The iPhone it helped create ultimately made its PC-tether model obsolete.
2 Retirement✎
macOS Catalina (2019) split iTunes into Music, TV, and Podcasts, moving device sync into the Finder; Windows followed in 2023–24 with dedicated Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices apps. The brand survives only where the storefront does — the iTunes Store for buying music and films — and in two decades of cultural memory of the software that sold the world its songs 99 cents at a time.
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