iPod turns 20: How Apple's influenced UK musical consumption?

We know that Apple influenced musical consumption with the iPod in every country in the world. But, how a little device has marked the Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones... land?

October 23, 2001, with the iPod, Steve Jobs revolutionized his brand and music consumption, in the United Kingdom and all around the world. “This amazing little device holds a thousand songs, and it goes right in my pocket”, said the late CEO of Apple, when he presented the product ten years before his death. In this period, that was unthinkable to have access to a lot of music, except in a sci-fi film...

Despite all these incredible features, the iPod’s sales did not reach the level expected by Apple in the launch. To use, the iPod needed to be connected with iTunes, a software available only on macOS. In 2003, Apple decided to release it on Windows as an opportunity to increase its market.  So, the history of the software is really linked to the iPod’s history. Also in 2003, Apple launched the iTunes Music Store, which allowed to buy any music from £0,99, a real revolution for the market.

The iPod's marketing

The iPod’s design, like any apple’s design, is now really part of pop culture with his wheel and his white EarPods.

Even if the conception had begun before, the development team which have finalized iPod before its launch was created in May, just five months before the keynote. Like all Apple’s products, a lot of importance has been accorded to the design and the finesse of the product. Steve Jobs, known as someone hard in the work, would have put an iPod’s prototype in an aquarium to show that if air bubbles go out, there is some empty space in the product.

With the iPod, Apple had dominated the market of mp3 players, according to estimations, around 500 million exemplars would have been sold since 2001 for all iPod’s models. The arrival of the iPhone and of smartphones by extension have almost killed iPod. All the features available on iPod were also on iPhone with iTunes. The arrival of music streaming with Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music was also a big hit in the iPod’s sales.

Many models during the 20 years

In the last 20 years, iPod has changed a lot. The classic model has been declined in six generations between 2001 and 2007 with the apparition of USB in addition to FireWire port, of a colour screen, of additional storage and of a touch button. Apple had also a more compact iPod with the mini and the nano version, but also the iPod Shuffle without a screen.

The last model launch was the really popular iPod Touch. This iPod launch nine months after the first iPhone retook his design and is the only one working on iOS. It is actually the only one always available on the website and in the Apple Store. The last version, launch in 2019 run with iOS 15, with an Apple A10 fusion chip, between 32Gb and 256Gb of storage but don’t arrive to find his target.