iTunes

One of the best things that Jobs’ new beginning at apple created was the iTunes store.  The iTunes store is by far one of the great inventions as it allows individuals to select partial parts of albums down to the smallest available part, an individual song for only 99 cents (currently 1.29 USD per song).  I would like to talk about this in two parts; first what this meant to consumers and secondly how this concept relates to individualism.

First, I remember before the iTunes store, as most of my generation might, when you had to go buy an album as a whole, and if you wanted to buy a single song, it would cost you nearly a third of the album cost.   This made it very burdensome for those who only like one song, from a one hit wonder.  Furthermore, it was nearly impossible to find singles once CDs became the medium of choice. So when the masses were first introduced to the iTunes store, it literally blew people’s minds.  Music, videos, movies, TV shows, apps, podcasts all available in one easy package.  This coupled with iMac, iPod, and now iPads make holding thousands of songs in one place one of the most appealing things since the Apple that threw man out of Eden.

Secondly, it is my belief that the iTunes store represents the most essential individualistic belief. That every man can make up his own mind about what is and is not wanted by him.  Being able to choose is not only a right but much more than that. Steve Jobs understood that we need to be able to make our own choices.