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iTunes

Apple's digital music store and player that revolutionised how we bought music — now replaced by Apple Music and apps

Concluded — iTunes was Apple's digital music store, player and media manager — one of the most influential software products ever. Apple retired the iTunes brand in 2019, splitting it into Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts apps.

iTunes launched in 2001 as Apple's music player and ripper, but soon became something far larger: the digital music store that made buying individual songs and albums online the norm. It transformed the music industry, drove the iPod's huge success and built an enormous library-management and syncing hub.

For nearly two decades, iTunes was Apple's central media application, managing music, movies, TV shows, podcasts and devices. It was a cultural touchstone and, at one point, the world's most popular music retailer.

In 2019, Apple quietly retired the iTunes brand, replacing it with three dedicated apps — Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts. The iTunes Store as a shopping venue lives on inside them, but "iTunes" as a product is gone.

Quick facts

Launched
2001
Impact
Made online music buying mainstream
Synced to
iPod (and later iPhone)
Retired
2019 (split into Apple Music/TV/Podcasts)
Legacy
One of the most influential media apps ever
Now
The store lives on inside newer apps

Lineage — where the name went

A Mac MP3 player called SoundJam became iTunes, iTunes grew a music store, and in 2019 that store was split into three apps.

  1. 1999 — Bill Kincaid created SoundJam MP (co-developer, with the device support for the Rio players)
  2. 1999 — Jeff Robbin created SoundJam MP (co-developer of the player)
  3. 1999 — Dave Heller created SoundJam MP (the third member of the core team)
  4. 1999 — Casady & Greene created SoundJam MP (the publisher that released it)
  5. 2000 — Apple acquired SoundJam MP (bought the rights from Casady & Greene under a two-year secrecy clause)
  6. 2001 — Apple created iTunes (version 1.0 released on 9 January 2001)
  7. 2001 — SoundJam MP was ancestor of iTunes (iTunes 1.0 was a re-engineered SoundJam MP)
  8. 2003 — iTunes created The iTunes Store (opened with version 4.0 in April 2003)
  9. 2003 — iTunes created iTunes for Windows (version 4.1 added Windows support in October 2003)
  10. iTunes sibling-of iPod (iTunes 2.0 added support for the iPod and the two shipped as a pair)
  11. 2019 — The 2019 split was succeeded by iTunes (Apple ended iTunes on macOS Catalina)
  12. 2019 — The 2019 split created Apple Music (one of the three replacement apps)
  13. 2019 — The 2019 split created Apple TV (one of the three replacement apps)
  14. 2019 — The 2019 split created Apple Podcasts (one of the three replacement apps)
  15. 2025 — The Windows app was succeeded by iTunes (a dedicated Windows app replaced iTunes on PC)

Entities in this tree: iTunes (product, 2001); SoundJam MP (product, 1999); Casady & Greene (company); Bill Kincaid (person); Jeff Robbin (person); Dave Heller (person); Apple (company); The iTunes Store (product, 2003); iTunes for Windows (product, 2003); iPod (product, 2001); The 2019 split (event, 2019); Apple Music (product, 2019); Apple TV (product, 2019); Apple Podcasts (product, 2019); The Windows app (product, 2025)

Sources

  1. iTunes - Wikipedia — Wikipedia (2026-09-05)
  2. Apple launches new Windows app to replace iTunes on PC — BTW Media (2026-09-05)
  3. History of iTunes - Wikipedia — Wikipedia (2026-09-20)
  4. SoundJam MP - Wikipedia — Wikipedia (2026-09-20)

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