Apple's iTunes and Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

Introduction

This paper examines Apple’s iTunes and file-sharing sites such as Napster and Kazaa.  It will include discussion of iTunes and the controversy over illegal downloading of music.  In particular, it will consider how record companies responded to illegal file-sharing sites.  It also will examine how Apple’s iTunes provided a convenient, legal way for consumers to download music. 

What is iTunes?

On its website, Apple (2010) pitches iTunes as a convenient site for “all your digital media, all in one place.”  It described iTunes as “a free application for your Mac or PC.  It organizes and plays your digital music and video on your computer.  It keeps all your content in sync.  And it’s a store on your computer, iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV that has everything you need to be entertained.”

The introduction of Napster, file sharing, and MP3 music downloads

File-sharing and peer-to-peer networks had a “formative impact” on the digital distribution of music, Madden (2009) noted.  “Distributed networks of socially-driven music sharing” such as Napster “helped lay the foundation for mainstream engagement with participatory media applications,” she wrote.  Until the introduction of Napster, Bakker (2005) noted, it was possible “in theory” to transfer music files over the Internet.  “But because of the size of CD-tracks (30 Mb or more) and low bandwidth,” he wrote, “transfer of these files was next to impossible for the average user” (p. 43).  In the late 1990s, though, technological developments such as the MP3 format led to the introduction of Napster in 1999, followed by Kazaa, Gnutella, and other peer-to-peer networks (Bakker, 2005).