The History Of Apple

With what seemed to be the speed of light, the business of music was transformed from the mass market selling of compact discs in stores to the individualized approach we see today. Not only was the commercial end of the music business suddenly changed, but the way the world listens to music also changed forever. The advent of the iPod (and associated MP3's) allowed users to "create their own personal soundtracks, instead of being constrained by a particular time, place or medium" (Blau, 2011). Answering the consumer's urges to listen to a specific type of music at any time gave Apple a power over the consumers never before seen. Format for musical experiences was also changed from the album approach to the individual track appeal. As programs such as GarageBand and Logic appeared, the lines between professional performers and home recordings became less clear. There was now a widespread accessibility of the necessary tools and engineering skills needed to engage would be musicians.

The timeline of change is hard to pin down, but an article from John Borland in 2003 shows how little anyone really understood what Apple's influence upon the music industry would be. He said "For all the glitz surrounding the unveiling Monday of Apple Computer's new music service, a quick look suggests that it's a solid, but hardly revolutionary, addition to the market" (Evolution Not Revolution, 2003). Mr. Borman was comparing the capabilities of the hungry monster that was Apple Computers to Amazon's gentle purchasing procedures. Others at the time predicted that Apple would be moderately successful but would be bypassed by other companies that had more retail experience and not just programming experience. As we shall explore, this was definitely not the case. Today Apple is the number one music retailer in the United States. Although this paper focuses on the changes to the music industry brought by Apple, it is nearly impossible to isolate it from the changes in the company, and the man, Steve Jobs.

Apple Computer, with Steve Jobs at the helm, allowed music to be individualized for everyone with their easy to access, affordable iTunes approach. No longer were the cumbersome accoutrements that went along with musical enjoyment necessary. Single cuts from artists became easy to own and listen to. Picking and choosing one's eclectic music became the norm. Jobs brought back a weak and nearly inaccessible industry from the brink of disappearing to the powerhouse it is today.

Had Jobs not been ousted by the hostile Board of Directors of Apple, the history of man and music might have been drastically different. Steve Jobs was a design visionary from the moment he realized that just selling a mother board would not satisfy a technically hungry public. Following Jobs' financially powerful return to the helm of Apple, backed by money from his animation company Pixar, he uncovered his vision of the personal digital music player. It is hard to really know if he actually coined the expression "songs in your pocket", but it certainly reflected his ideas about Apple's role in the music business.

It may seem that Apple Computers set the stage, provided the actors, the script and all else necessary for their tremendous success. This is not the say that they did not stand upon the shoulders of other giants whose names are long forgotten such as the Walkman as well as earlier computers such as Atari, not to mention their own clunky Apple IIe. But as they became a force to be reckoned with others came onboard making Apple's success possible. Hewlett Packard announced in 1998 that their printers would support Macs returning Apple to profitability and opening the way for the impending progress. It should be noted here that not everything that Steve Jobs introduced was a tremendous success. In 2000 He introduced the "PoweMac Cube which would be killed about a year later" (Bort, 2012).

First he brought in the futuristic personal computer, the iMac, returning the company to profitability. This was quickly followed by the introduction of the iPod in October of 2001 as a personal digital music player. In 2003 iTunes were a reality. Within months, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store, an online store which sold individual tracks, many for 99 cents. Consumers could hardly keep up and nearly everyone had an opinion about what was happening, even if they didn't understand it.

Not satisfied with the bulky appearance of the iPod, a thinner and lighter iPod, capable of holding many more songs was introduced. This was followed by the iPod Nano in 2005. The cost of the iPod which had never really been beyond the reach of the consumer, dropped to accommodate affordable upgrades. To Apple's credit, the original product was never outdated like vinyl disks or 8-tracks and cassette tapes, but then again, the iPod didn't have the inherent problems of breakage, magnetism, and inevitable fouling of the tapes the other devices. The biggest problem was not dropping it in a sink full of water or forgetting to re-charge it or losing its special wall plug-in device. Batteries were no longer needed.

Although Apple is the most public face of the changes in the music industry, there is very little that is not or would not have been changed, even without Apple's mighty iPod and iStore. Reflecting upon the internal as well as external aspects of music, there is no area that has not been touched by the march of technology. Nothing is outside the technological reach from the music publisher to the label to the artist to the consumer (Stafford, 2010). Technology has forced all of these areas to change.

To accommodate the requirement of easy "downloading", music files need to be digitally compressed. In the early stages, there were a great deal of legal problems surrounding this process in the form of illegal downloads. Unknown to the developers of space saving high audio quality devices such as the iPad and MP3's, the devices that were developed would lead to file sharing and the famous Napster peer2peer file sharing copyright infringements.

Those in the industry of promotion saw their profits dwindling. The internet's involvement as middleman eventually secured its position as a necessary component for earning profits. Today, record labels have lost control and artists and consumers now have the upper hand. Artists are becoming more capable of promoting themselves and thus have gained more power and ownership in their product. The bargaining power of customers has gone from low to high. They are no longer loyal, nor do they need to be since they can get their music from a wide variety of sources.

Consumers demanded that the music industry stay abreast of the changes brought about by the digital age. For those who were involved