Scientific American magazine is the latest publication to recognize Apple’s accomplishments with its iTunes Music Service. Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the 2003 Scientific American 50.
The Scientific American 50 is a list that “recognizes the singular accomplishments of those who have contributed to the advancement of technology in the realms of science, engineering, commerce and public policy.” Jobs is in good company, alongside research scientists, businesses, politicians and others that Scientific American feels deserve special recognition for their efforts this past year.
Specifically, Jobs gets the nod for communications in the business category, where he is credited for starting “an online music service that serves as a model for the rest of the record industry.”
Commercial online music sales largely languished until late April, 2003 when Apple introduced the iTunes Music Store. The service provides users with the ability to buy single tracks of commercially published music for US$0.99 each, or $9.99 for many entire albums. With the ability to store music on the hard drive, burn it to CD or transfer it to an iPod, Apple’s iTunes Music Store has served as the model for the rest of the industry to use for simple Digital Rights Management (DRM).
Initially available only for Mac OS X users, the iTunes Music Store has since been made available for Windows users also. Apple has been joined by several other high-profile competitors fighting for dominance in the Windows space, including Roxio’s revamped Napster 2.0 service and branded solutions from computer maker dell and Gateway. Most recently, Microsoft indicated that it too will get into the online music business with its own solution for its MSN online service.