MUSIC IN THE DIGITAL ERA
Interactive Digital Music Time Line
1991
MP3 file compression format invented by Fraunhofer Institute
1992
Compact discs become the preferred medium for recorded music surpassing cassette tapes.
1996
Janet Jackson becomes highest-paid musician in history ( $80-million deal with Virgin Records).
1997
The launch of MP3.com
1998
Diamond Multimedia developed the first handheld MP3 player
eMusic founded
1999
The launch of Napster
Polygram and Universal records merge.
2000
KaZaA and Gnutella launch
2001
Napster shut down by 9th US Circuit Court of Appeal
Beginning of legal subscription services (i.e. Rhapsody, and MusicNet)
Mobile music recognition service, Shazam was launched
2002
Launch of iPod
Last.fm launches
Warp launches its Bleep download store
2003
iTunes Music Store launches in US
Napster 2.0 launches legally
2004
MySpace's first appearance
Napster comes to UK
iTunes Music Store comes to UK
First Official UK Download chart - Westlife top the chart with ‘Flying Without Wings’
High Court rules ISPs must identify 26 individuals accused of serial uploading tofile-sharing networks
250,000 music downloads are sold averagely per week in UK
2005
Apple sold 500M music tracks and 3M video downloads using iTunes and sold 30 million iPods globally
Download services offered in HMV and Virgin Megastores
2006
Zune was launched by Microsoft in US
100 million tracks are sold by eMusic
5% of UK album sales are sold digitally
Digital makes up 8% of all single tracks sold
2007
Online music downloads are chart-eligible removing the need for physical format
iPhone was launched selling 270,000 units in first two days
70% of the world’s music is sold by one of four companies: Sony BMG, Universal, Warner and EMI.
iTunesoffers DRM-free option
982,713 digital albums sold in UK in first three months
Ad-funded download services We7, SpiralFrog and Qtrax arrive.
40% of mobile phones in UK are music-enabled
eMusic had 350,000 subscribers and sold 165 million of music downloads
500 million music phones and 200 million MP3 players shipped globally
2008
Memorandum of Understanding are signed by UK rights holders and ISPs to help stem file-sharing
MySpace Music launched in US
Nokia mobile phone Comes With Music in UK
iPhone 3G was launched and 1M units sold in opening weekend
Amazon MP3 download stores were launched in UK
7digital became first store in Europe to get content from all 4 majors stripped of DRM
Apple announced 6 billion tracks sales by iTunes and 300 millions applications
20% of all radios sold in UK are now DAB
2 million downloads sold each week in UK
Apple announces 174 million iPods sold to date; it has 65 million iTunes customer
Demise of Woolworths and Zavvi
2009
iTunes fully transformed to DRM-free
Sales of Guitar Hero III top $1 billion
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop dies
Sources, BBC News, infoplease.com, BPI, factmonster.com
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