Apple is celebrating the 100 millionth song added to Apple Music.
Key Details
- Apple Music celebrated this feat on Monday, which makes it the world’s largest music catalog.
- “Twenty-one years on from the invention of iTunes and the debut of the original iPod, we’ve gone from 1,000 songs in your pocket to 100,000x on Apple Music. It’s phenomenal growth by any metric,” says Apple.
- “The milestone cements it as the world’s largest catalog of music, more than YouTube Music’s 80 million songs, Spotify’s 82 million tracks and podcasts, and Amazon Music’s 90 million songs,” says AP.
- iTunes launched on January 9, 2001.
- The company does not know which song was the official 100 millionth song.
Why it’s important
Apple Music has proven to be one of Apple’s most lucrative business ventures. Its success has made it a core music platform and at its height helped low music pirating by making music easily accessible.
The feat was likely pushed by the globalization of the company’s music platform and the proliferation of the Internet in other countries.
“The number of Apple Music songs has doubled in the last four years, from 50 million in 2018, with the pandemic believed to have accelerated the timetable as people in isolation looked for creative outlets. The 100 millionth song could perhaps come from an artist as yet unknown,” says AP.
Backing up a bit
There is a lot of money in owning the backlogs of popular music. Licensing and advertising allow the ownership of a back catalog to be a billion-dollar industry.
“Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is joining with independent publisher Primary Wave Music in a $2 billion deal to invest in music copyrights,” says The Wall Street Journal.
“Primary Wave’s acquisition business differs from the buy-and-hold strategy of many of the market’s newer players. The company, whose three funds hold some $2.1 billion in value, typically takes controlling interests in catalogs—often joining with artists or their estates—and then works to actively increase the value by commissioning biographical films, Broadway shows, interpolations, and brand deals.”
Just last week, musician Phil Collins’ and his Genesis bandmates sold the rights to their music to Concord Music Group Inc. for $300 million.“The megadeal includes the publishing copyrights and a mix of recorded music income streams and masters of Mr. Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks‘ individual careers and work as the progressive rock group Genesis,” says The Wall Street Journal.