iTunes Store at 10: how Apple built a digital media juggernaut
Ten years ago this month, a music sector ravaged by Napster and largely ignorant of digital distribution found a savior of sorts in what was then called the iTunes Music Store. With its 99-cent unbundled songs, the service quickly became the only significant source for acquiring music legally online.
With iTunes, Apple had drawn the blueprint for distributing music, movies, books, and apps over the web. By supplying and tying together a music player, online store, and song-mangement software, Apple drastically simplified the entire music experience, defying the odds to build a music-retailing dynasty even as file sharing skyrocketed. A decade ago, Apple started to answer what would become an all-important question: how do you get consumers to pay for content again?
Just wrote a bunch about iTunes and the 10th anniversary of the iTunes Store. Check it.
I got to spend some time with the mad scientists behind Teenage Engineering’s OP-1 synthesizer. The company has just launched some really bizarre and interesting new accessories… it feels like a toy, but this thing is suited to serious music creation. Was really hard to let them leave without stealing the OP-1.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how amazing Bill Waterson was at art? Most of the comic strip was really cartooney but them he’d bust out stuff like this, and both styles in his hand were astoundingly beautiful.
Source: firebolting
Sonic mayhem.
My interview with Sascha Dikiciyan, who composed the soundtrack for Mass Effect 3, Tron: Evolution, and a number of other games you’ve likely played. He also shared with us his top iPad apps for music creation. Fun stuff.
My first full review for The Verge. Lots of work, but lots of fun as well.
Does the K-01’s performance justify its excessive size and price?
