Verzuz Begins on Instagram Live
Timbaland and Swizz Beatz turn a remote producer battle into a participatory music-history format.
“Gangnam Style” Reaches One Billion YouTube Views
PSY’s Korean-language hit becomes the first YouTube video to cross the billion-view threshold.
The iTunes Music Store Opens
Apple launches a legal download store offering individual tracks at a simple price.
Spotify Launches Its Consumer Streaming Service
An on-demand licensed catalog begins shifting music consumption from ownership toward access.
Napster Makes Peer-to-Peer Music Sharing Mainstream
A student-built service lets millions of people search for and exchange MP3 files directly.
Apple Introduces the iPod
A pocket-sized device presents a thousand-song personal library as a simple consumer experience.
The Phonograph Makes Sound Repeatable
Edison’s Menlo Park team demonstrates a machine that records and reproduces sound.
The Digital Music Revolution
The shift from physical recordings toward files, downloads, portable libraries, platforms, and networked distribution.
The Streaming Era
The on-demand access model that reorganized music discovery, distribution, measurement, and payment.
Steve Jobs
Apple co-founder who presented the iPod and helped position legal digital downloads as a mainstream music business.