May 9, 2005: Apple quietly begins selling music videos in the iTunes Music Store.
The feature arrives with iTunes 4.8, initially offering bonus content for people purchasing albums through the store. It will take several months for Apple to start selling individual music videos, along with Pixar short films and a selection of TV shows, for $1.99 a pop.
iTunes Music Store adds music videos
Apple’s decision to embrace video made perfect sense. YouTube was in its infancy (hence people paying money for music videos rather than streaming them for free). However, increased high-speed internet penetration finally made video streaming a possibility for ordinary users.
In an attempt to compete with services like iTunes, some record labels began selling enhanced CDs around this time. The discs came with music videos, wallpapers and other extras accessible by computer.
This format never really caught on, though, due to the general awkwardness of playing enhanced CDs. To access the bonus features, you needed to take the disc out of your CD player, put it into your computer, and then navigate a (typically badly designed) interface to watch a brief MPEG video.
iTunes, on the other hand, made everything seamless. Downloading videos worked no differently than downloading music. There was no extra step involved. This ease of use made all the difference.
Music videos on iTunes
The first music videos to show up on iTunes included a mix of solo tracks and albums with extras: “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz, The Antidote by Morcheeba ($9.90 for 10 songs, plus one video), “Warning Shots” by Thievery Corporation ($1.98 for one song and one video), Stand Up by Dave Matthews Band ($11.99 for 14 songs, one video and one PDF) and “Pink Bullets” by The Shins ($1.98 for one song and one video).
The video quality wasn’t always amazing. Unlike the high-def quality of today’s iTunes video downloads or Apple TV+ video, some music videos came at a measly 480×360 resolution. However, making them extras instead of premium content allowed Apple to iron out the kinks before charging money for video downloads.
By that time, Apple had launched the fifth-gen iPod Classic. That device introduced video playback — confirming video as an extremely important part of Cupertino’s content offerings.
Apple Music TV
These days, Apple is deep into the streaming game. Built on the $3 billion acquisition of Beats, subscription service Apple Music launched in 2015. Video was always in the mix, since Cupertino folded some music documentaries into the service. And then Apple TV+ followed in 2019. A year later, Apple flipped the switch on a free 24/7 streaming music video service called Apple Music TV.
What was the first video download you made via iTunes? Leave your comments below.