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?
"They invented the digital music business," said Michael Nash, the former digital chief at Warner Music Group. "Apple really created the convergence of music and technology and showed everyone what the connected economy around content looks like."...
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