ITunes Plus

iTunes Store

The iTunes Store, as seen in iTunes 12.2
Opened	April 28, 2003; 14 years ago (2003-04-28)
Platforms	macOS, iOS, Windows, tvOS
Format	Unprotected AAC (.m4a) @ 256 kbit/s (music), protected AAC (.m4p) @ 32, 64 and 128 kbit/s (audiobooks), unprotected MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) (music videos), protected MPEG-4 Video (.m4v) (other video)
Restrictions	(Protected) Music: streaming to five computers every 24 hours, unlimited CDs (seven with an unchanged playlist), unlimited iPods and iPhones.
Catalogue	37,000,000+ songs worldwide, 1,000,000+ podcasts (US), 40,000+ music videos (US), 3,000+ TV shows (US), 20,000+ audiobooks (US), 45,000+ movies (US), 1,000,000+ App Store apps
Preview	30–90 seconds (music, TV, videos, audiobooks, movies) available for free
Streaming	Yes (for purchased movies and TV shows). Streaming for music via Apple Music.
	iTunes Music Store Protocol (itms://)
Availability	See Internationalization
Website	www.apple.com/itunes/

The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, and has been the largest music vendor in the United States since April 2008, and the largest music vendor in the world since February 2010. It offers over 35 - 40 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,000 TV shows, and 65,000 films as of January, 2017. iTunes Store's revenues in the first quarter of 2011 totaled nearly US$1.4 billion; by May 28, 2014, the store had sold 35 billion songs worldwide.

While most downloaded files initially included usage restrictions enforced by FairPlay, Apple's implementation of digital rights management (DRM), iTunes later initiated a shift into selling DRM-free music in most countries, marketed as iTunes Plus. On January 6, 2009, Apple announced that DRM had been removed from 80% of its music catalog in the US. Full iTunes Plus availability was achieved in the US on April 7, 2009, coinciding with the introduction of a three-tiered pricing model; however, television episodes, many books, and films are still FairPlay-protected. As of June 2013, iTunes Store possesses 575 million active user accounts, and serves over 315 million mobile devices, including Apple Watches, iPods, iPhones, Apple TV and iPads.

Before iTunes Store, most of the online music market consisted of downloads through websites like Napster and illegal downloads.Steve Jobs saw the opportunity to open a digital marketplace for music upon the rising popularity of easily downloadable tracks. In 2002, Jobs made an agreement with the five major record labels to offer their content through iTunes. iTunes Store was introduced by Jobs at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in April 2003. When it opened, it was the only legal digital catalog of music to offer songs from all five major record labels. At first, it was only available on Mac computers and the iPod, being expanded to Microsoft Windows in October 2003.