Representing iTunes to the public on the 28th of April , 2003, Steve Jobs turned his slide and glancing around a full house, said that when about one and a half years ago, they had started to create a music service, they had had to negotiate with the five major record labels. And then he remembered a quote from Hunter Thompson (American writer and journalist, author of the novel “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” – ) about the music industry: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” Jobs said that he hadn’t known then what he had expected. However, Apple CEO worries were vain. Apple online music store has become a phenomenon unprecedented in the music industry for the past ten years, turning it upside down. During that time, no one generation of Apple gadgets  was replaced, old devices were removed. Jobs has died, his place was taken by Cook — but iTunes remains the same as it was 10 years ago. Some impressive figures link to iTunes. Over the past decade service has sold over 25 billion songs, there are 35 million tracks in its catalog, iTunes is available in 119 countries, and in addition, more than 200 million people using the service iTunes Match, which allows them to store their music library on Apple servers.

According to the analyst Benedict Evans, iTunes is a kind of area, through which it’s very difficult for the user to leave the ecosystem created by Apple.The idea to integrate their own projects in the foundation of the corporate ecosystem and thereby strengthen it, guaranteeing the safety of future returns themselves, in business is not new. iTunes legitimized digital music in the era when the MP3 format has been synonymous with piracy. Ten years ago, Apple had known what exactly consumers wanted even before they realized it. But it is worth thinking that the era when consumers will dictate their rules, has already come.