The

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

media platform was first released by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

in 2001 as a simple music player for Mac computers. Over time, iTunes developed into a sophisticated multimedia content manager, hardware synchronization manager and e-commerce platform. iTunes was finally discontinued for new Mac computers in 2019, but is still available and supported for Macs running older

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

s and for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

computers to ensure updated compatibility for syncing with new releases of iOS devices (refer to Devices section). iTunes enables users to manage media content, create playlists, synchronize media content with handheld devices including the

iPod The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about mon ...

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

, and

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

, re-image and update handheld devices, stream Internet radio and purchase music, films,

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

shows, and audiobooks via the iTunes Store. iTunes has been credited with accelerating shifts within the

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

. The pricing structure of iTunes encouraged the sale of single songs, allowing users to abandon the purchase of more expensive albums. This hastened the end of the

Album Era The album era (sometimes, album-rock era) was a period in popular music, usually defined as the mid-1960s through the mid-2000s, in which the album—a collection of songs issued on physical media—was the dominant form of recorded music expr ...

in popular music.

History

In 2000, Apple purchased the MP3 player software SoundJam MP, a program developed by Bill Kincaid and released by Casady & Greene in 1999. At the time of the purchase, Kincaid, Jeff Robbin and Dave Heller left Casady & Greene to continue development of the program as Apple employees. At Apple, the developers simplified SoundJam's user interface, added the ability to burn CDs, and removed the program's recording feature and

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different ...

support. On January 9, 2001, at Macworld San Francisco, Apple released version 1.0 of the program under the name "iTunes" for

Mac OS 9 Mac OS 9 is the ninth and final major release of the classic Mac OS operating system for Macintosh computers, made by Apple Computer. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever", highlight ...

. Macintosh users immediately began poking through iTunes's

resource fork A resource fork is a fork of a file on Apple's classic Mac OS operating system that is used to store structured data. It is one of the two forks of a file, along with the data fork, which stores data that the operating system treats as unstruct ...

, where they discovered numerous strings and other resources that indicated that iTunes was a re-engineered Sound Jam MP. Casady & Greene ceased distribution of SoundJam MP on June 1, 2001, at the request of the developers. In March 2001, iTunes began to support Mac OS X with the release of version 1.1. Release 2.0 added support for the new iPod. Version 3 dropped Mac OS 9 support but added smart

playlists A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

and a ratings system. In April 2003, version 4.0 introduced the iTunes Store; in October, version 4.1 added support for

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...

and

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

. Introduced at Macworld 2005 with the new

iPod Shuffle The iPod Shuffle (stylized and marketed as iPod shuffle) is a discontinued digital audio player designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. It was the smallest model in Apple's iPod family, and was the first iPod to use flash memory. The firs ...

, Version 4.7.1 introduced the ability to convert higher-bitrate songs to 128 kbit/s

AAC AAC may refer to: Aviation * Advanced Aircraft, a company from Carlsbad, California * Airborne aircraft carrier, a type of aircraft * Alaskan Air Command, a radar network * American Aeronautical Corporation, a company from Port Washington, New ...

automatically, as these devices did not natively support audio encoded in

AIFF AIFF may refer to: * Audio Interchange File Format * All India Football Federation, the national governing body of Association football in India Film festivals * Addis International Film Festival, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia * Alexandria Internation ...

Apple Lossless The Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC, ), also known as Apple Lossless, or Apple Lossless Encoder (ALE), is an audio coding format, and its reference audio codec implementation, developed by Apple Inc., Apple for lossless data compression of digit ...

formats, also improving the value proposition of the Shuffle's limited flash-only storage. Version 7.0 introduced

gapless playback Gapless playback is the uninterrupted playback of consecutive audio tracks, such that relative time distances in the original audio source are preserved over track boundaries on playback. For this to be useful, other artifacts (than timing-related ...

and Cover Flow in September 2006. In March 2007, iTunes 7.1 added support for Windows Vista, and 7.3.2 was the last Windows 2000 version. Until January 16, 2008 with the 7.6 update, iTunes lacked support for 64-bit versions of Windows. iTunes is currently supported under any 64-bit version of Windows, although the iTunes executable was still 32-bit until version 12.1. The 64-bit versions of Windows XP and

Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003, codenamed "Whistler Server", is the sixth major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft and the first server version to be released under the Windows Server brand name. It is part of the Windows NT ...

are not supported by

, but a workaround has been devised for both operating systems. Version 8.0 added

Genius Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabiliti ...

playlists, a grid view, and a new default visualizer. On September 9, 2009, iTunes 9 added "Home Share" enabling automatic updating of purchased items across other computers on the same subnet and offers a new iTunes Store . Genius Mixes were added, as well as improved App synchronization abilities, extending the iPod Shuffle 128 kbit/s down-convert feature to all of Apple's AAC-capable devices. It also adds iTunes LPs to the store, which gives additional media with an album. Apple added iTunes Extras as well to the store, which adds content usually reserved for films on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

discs. Both iTunes LPs and Extras use web-standards

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

, and CSS. On September 1, 2010, Apple held their annual music press event where they unveiled an updated version: iTunes 10. The new version was available for download later that day. One major feature includes the integration of " iTunes Ping", which brings a social factor to the iTunes experience. Apple CEO

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...

also announced a new logo, one without a CD in the background because of the increasing popularity of iTunes digital downloads. In October 2012, Apple announced the launch of the

iPhone 5 The iPhone 5 is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, 6th generation iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4s, and preceding both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. It was formally unveiled as part of ...

and iPad Mini, the refresh of the

and

Mac Mac or MAC may refer to: Common meanings * Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages * McIntosh (apple), a Canadi ...

lines, and the upcoming release of iTunes 11. Slated for release by the end of October, the launch was pushed back to November 29, 2012. This version included tighter integration with

iCloud iCloud is the personal cloud service of Apple Inc. Launched on October 12, 2011, iCloud enables users to store and Data synchronization, sync data across devices, including Apple Mail, Calendar (Apple), Apple Calendar, Photos (Apple), Apple Ph ...

, and a new user interface. Users' libraries now include all media they have stored in their iCloud account, along with any media unique to the device they are using. Media files stored in the cloud don't need to be downloaded before playing, allowing a larger collection to be accessible without increased disk usage. The new user interface includes a refreshed grid view, which replaces Cover Flow as the default layout method. With this change, Cover Flow is no longer available within the application. With the release of this software, the iTunes Store was redesigned to remain consistent with the new interface, and the stores available on

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

devices. The social element Ping was also removed and replaced by increased

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

integration. Other minor changes included disabling the sidebar by default, and slightly altering the icon to match that of the

Mac App Store The Mac App Store (also known as the App Store) is a digital distribution platform for macOS apps, often referred to as Mac apps, created and maintained by Apple. The platform was announced on October 20, 2010, at Apple's "Back to the Mac" eve ...

better. On October 16, 2014, Apple released iTunes 12, with a redesigned icon and interface, inspired by

OS X Yosemite OS X Yosemite ( ; version 10.10) is the eleventh major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. OS X Yosemite was announced and released to developers on June 2, 2014, at WWDC 2014 and re ...

. With iTunes 12.1 and later, there is a new widget for notification center in OS X Yosemite, which allows the user to see what's playing, skip ahead, and even buy songs from iTunes Radio, right from notification center. It also improves performance when syncing to an iOS device. On April 26, 2018, Apple released iTunes 12 for

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

via the

Windows Store The Microsoft Store (formerly known as the Windows Store) is a digital distribution platform operated by Microsoft. It was created as an app store for Windows 8 as the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform apps. With ...

. The

Universal Windows Platform Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is a computing platform created by Microsoft and introduced in Windows 10. The purpose of this platform is to help develop universal apps that run on Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile (discontinued), Windows 11, Xbox ...

app retains all features available in the desktop version, but will be updated and available through the Windows Store. On June 3, 2019, Apple stated that they would no longer include iTunes with future Mac computers. Starting with the operating system

macOS Catalina macOS Catalina (version 10.15) is the sixteenth software versioning, major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was announced at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019 and ...

, Apple instead split iTunes into separate apps:

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...

, and

Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts (known as simply Podcasts in Apple operating systems) is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 ...

. iTunes continues to be available on Windows and on macOS operating systems prior to Catalina. Users can also still install iTunes versions 10, 11, and 12 on

macOS Sonoma macOS Sonoma (version 14) is the twentieth Software versioning, major release of macOS, Apple Inc., Apple's operating system for Mac (computer), Mac computers. The successor to macOS Ventura, it was announced at WWDC 2023 on June 5, 2023, and ...

using the Retroactive app.

Compatibility

Operating system versions

* iTunes 2.0.4 can only run if

Classic A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of Masterpiece, lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or Literary merit, highest quality, class, or rank – something that Exemplification, exemplifies its ...

is installed. Otherwise, Mac OS X 10.0 can only run iTunes 1.1.1 natively. * iTunes Store requires at least version 12 for a user to sign in and make purchases, dropping support for earlier versions. * On May 25, 2018, Apple dropped support for Windows XP and Vista, no longer allowing new purchases or re-downloading of previous purchases. * On June 30, 2018,

TLS 1.0 Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network, such as the Internet. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, ...

was discontinued, affecting devices on iOS 4.3.5, OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion and earlier. On both Windows and Mac computers, the minimum version able to manage accounts & edit payment information are iTunes 12.6.4 (released in April 2018) and 12.7.5 (released in May 2018). * To manually update iOS device drivers on Mac computers, users can extract & install the MobileDevice.pkg package that is bundled inside the latest version of

Xcode Xcode is a suite of developer tools for building apps on Apple devices. It includes an integrated development environment (IDE) of the same name for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. It w ...

installer. * To manually update iOS device drivers on Windows computers, users can extract & install the AppleMobileDeviceSupport.msi (32-bit) / AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi (64-bit) package that is bundled inside the latest version of iTunes installer. * Although new versions of iTunes have not been released for Mac computers since May 2019, mobile device driver updates for new iOS releases (i.e iOS 13, 14, 15) have been backported to iTunes 12.8 (for OS X 10.11 El Capitan, macOS 10.12 Sierra, 10.13 High Sierra) and 12.9 (for macOS 10.14 Mojave). Starting with

iOS 16 iOS 16 is the iOS version history, sixteenth major release of Apple Inc., Apple's iOS mobile operating system for the iPhone. It is the successor of iOS 15, and was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 202 ...

and the

iPhone 14 The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are smartphones developed and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the List of iPhone models, sixteenth-generation iPhones, succeeding the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini, and were announced during List of Ap ...

, the minimum OS requirement was raised to at least macOS 10.13 High Sierra. * As of December 2024, iTunes is no longer able to create new Apple Accounts, but is still able to sign in to existing Apple Accounts that have been activated. This is because Apple has discontinued security questions & made two-factor authentication mandatory for activating iTunes & App Store functionality on a newly created account – a process that requires a device with at least

iOS 13 iOS 13 is the thirteenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple for the iPhone, iPod Touch and HomePod. The successor to iOS 12, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June ...

.4,

iPadOS 13 iPadOS 13 is the first major release of the iPadOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's 2019 Worldwide Developers C ...

.4,

macOS 10.15 macOS Catalina (version 10.15) is the sixteenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. It is the successor to macOS Mojave and was announced at WWDC 2019 on June 3, 2019 and released to the pub ...

.4 or later.

Devices

Version history

iTunes 1

iTunes 2

iTunes 3

iTunes 4

iTunes 5

iTunes 6

iTunes 7

iTunes 8

iTunes 9

iTunes 10

iTunes 11

iTunes 12

} , , Bug fixes , - ! , , Bug fix , - ! , , Fixes bug with playlist syncing , - ! , , Fixes bugs with screen readers and VoiceOver, and restores the option to Reset Plays * Last version to support OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion , - ! , , * Adds iOS 10 support * Adds Siri integration for macOS Sierra * Adds Picture-in-Picture support for macOS Sierra * Action menu changes to bring iTunes in line with iOS music app ("Add to Up Next" is now "Play Later") * Removes "Music" (main music library) as an option for "Show in Playlist" from the contextual menu , - ! , , Bug fixes , - ! , , Bug fixes. Removes the ability to refresh a podcast from within a playlist in album view , - ! , , Adds support for the TV app on iOS and Apple TV , - ! , , * Several security fixes. , - ! , , * The first public release with iPad (5th generation) and APFS (iOS 10.3) support , - ! , , * Returns option to open a playlist in a new window , - ! , , Bug fixes , - ! , , Supports high DPI displays on Windows Last version to support OS X 10.9 Mavericks , - ! , , * Separate build to allow businesses and individuals to continue to manage apps using iTunes * Features removed in iTunes 12.7 are kept in this version * Adds iOS 11 support, as with iTunes 12.7 * With the release of macOS High Sierra, iTunes is no longer given priority over media keys, rather they are confined to the current program , - ! , , *Adds iOS 11.3 compatibility * Updating devices from iOS 11.2.6 to 11.3 within the app is broken * Minimum version able to manage accounts & edit payment information (besides iTunes 12.7.5), as

was discontinued. , - ! , , * Adds iOS 12 support, as with iTunes 12.9 * Fixes a problem with iOS updates and version numbers * Last version to keep the built-in App Store browser (Still able to download apps, as of April 2024.) , - ! , , * Adds iOS 11 support * This update removes the built-in App Store browser; App Store URLs are no longer handled by iTunes * This update loses support for synchronization and streaming with the first generation Apple TV * This update removes synchronization of ringtones * This update removes local application management UI. Applications now need to be manually dragged and dropped onto a connected device to install. , - ! , , Bug fixes , - ! , , Bug fixes , - ! , , Bug fixes , - ! , , Bug fixes , - ! , , Bug fixes , - ! , , Bug fixes * Minimum version able to manage accounts & edit payment information (besides iTunes 12.6.4), as

was discontinued. , - ! , , * On macOS, adds supports for multi-room audio and HomePod stereo pairs to AirPlay 2. AirPlay menu can be used to control the play queue. , - ! , , macOS only (OS X 10.10), bug fixes. Last version to support OS X 10.10 Yosemite. , - ! , , Fixes bug with third-party AirPlay speakers not working macOS only (OS X 10.11, macOS 10.12, 10.13) Last version to support OS X 10.11 El Capitan, macOS 10.12 Sierra. , - ! , , Security update, macOS only (macOS 10.13) Last version to support macOS 10.13 High Sierra. , - ! , , * Adds iOS 12 support * New features for Apple Music subscribers * Initially only available for Windows (Build 167); released for macOS as part of macOS Mojave on September 24, 2018. , - ! ,
Security update
* Windows only , - ! , , * Minor app and performance improvements * macOS only (included with macOS 10.14.2 and 10.14.3) , - ! ,
Security update
Windows only , - ! ,
Security update
Windows only , - ! , , Fits more music on the Browse tab. macOS only (included with macOS 10.14.4) , - ! , , Fits more music on the Browse ta
Security update
Windows only , - ! , , macOS only (included with macOS 10.14.5 and 10.14.6) Final macOS version. , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , Adds iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 support. , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , Last version to bundle Apple Application Support , - ! , , Adds iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 support. , - ! , , , - ! , , Last version to support

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

and Windows 8.1 , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , Adds iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 support. , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , Adds iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 support. , - ! , , , - ! , , Final version to release before the beta launch of the Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices apps, intended to replace iTunes , - ! , , , - ! , , , - ! , , Adds iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 support. , - ! , , Added the ability to use Podcasts and Audiobooks with iTunes while the Apple Music and Apple TV apps are installed , - ! , , , - ! , , Adds support for iPad Air (6th generation) and iPad Pro (7th generation). , - ! , , Adds iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 support. , - ! , , Adds support for iPad Mini (7th generation). , - ! , , Adds support for iPhone 16e. , - ! , , Adds support for iPad (11th generation) and iPad Air (7th generation). , - ! , ,

References

External links

* – official site at

{{Apple software *Timeline