Steve Jobs iGenius: The iPod. Part 5

15 Nov 2011 | News | Ali Gorelova on Google+

iRevolution in Music Business

This gadget was very slim and referred to as “sexy” by many users. It was new, small and cool. People who had it looked a bit cooler than others. At those times…

Steve loved music. So, when he started his second tour in Apple, he turned his two passions, music and technology, into a new revolutionary gadget.

Steve Jobs didn’t invent the mp3 player. He just made it simple, awesome and fun.

The iPod’s Birth

The iPod line was produced by Apple in 2001. It quickly became “the rock star of all music players”. It allowed people to touch it, interact with it and carry all their music in their pocket. This is what was so amazing about this music player.

Apple looked at existing digital music players as at huge, clunky and useless device. The company didn’t like their user interface, so Steve Jobs decided to develop one of his own. He told Apple’s engineers to design a new gadget. It took them less than a year to accomplish this task and make one of Steve’s dreams come true.

The first iPod was introduced by Jobs in October, 2001. It had a 5GB hard drive that could hold 1,000 songs.

$1 Songs for the iPod

The next Jobs’ step was to change the entire music business.

With the introduction of the iPod the problems surfaced. Users started to use illegal file sharing websites to download music they liked for free.

Since it is impossible to be at suit with all the “pirates”, Steve found another way how to solve the problem.

He simply established new rules for music business. He wanted all the songs for the same price, $1. So he convinced all record companies to agree with him. This is something that has been done in music history for the first time in the world.

iTunes Store

Two years later, in 2003, Apple launched its iTunes store.

It was a great introduction. No longer music fans had to purchase full albums. They could choose their favorite songs, make playlists and shuffle music compositions. It gave people a chance to discover more artists and genres. Experts believe that “the generation that grew up in the age of shuffle has broader taste in music”.

Revolutions Continues

In 2004 Steve Jobs had to undergo surgery to remove a cancerous tumor… This pushed him forward. He soon added nano to the iPod line making it even more popular. One gadget could hold several million songs, music videos and even movies.