iTunes

The word “iTunes” was used in the New York Times in an article called “Online Piper, Payable by the Tune” by David Pogue in 2003. Steve Jobs, Apple Computer’s co-founder, and his team created iTunes, which became one of the greatest music downloading sites known online. The term “iTunes” comes from the basic phrase of “Internet tunes”. Since iTunes gave people the ability to download music off the Internet it only seems valid for it to be named iTunes. What made iTunes so much more popular than other music downloading sites was that it was the first website you weren’t required to pay a monthly fee. Other music-downloading sites were meant for renting music. ITunes allows its users to actually buy the music off the Internet, making it a lot more useful and beneficial to everyone’s specific interests in music.

Today, iTunes is still known as the same meaning, however, I don’t believe people actually understand the true meaning of the name. Yes, it is still used in the same way, but people do not actually understand why it is called iTunes. Just like it has been in the past, it is just the fact that you’re able to purchase “tunes” off of the Internet. ITunes is very popular today and will continue to grow. Now iTunes not only offers music, but also podcasts, books, and movies. When searching for “iTunes” in the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, there wasn’t anything listed in this past decade. I found this very interesting and I’m not really sure why iTunes couldn’t be searched on either since it was so popular.

In Project Muse, when searching “iTunes” a 2005 article talked about how the upcoming of iTunes caused older music downloading sites to lose many users at a fast rate. This isn’t surprising seeing as iTunes allowed people to buy whatever music they’d like. Paying a monthly fee then seemed ridiculous, especially if you don’t download any music for a month.

The term “iTunes” has always been known as the same meaning. I think this is because it is a fairly unique word. It also follows along with other Apple products like iMac and iPod. ITunes has definitely trumpeted other music downloading sites and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.