Napster and File Sharing
In 2000 Napster is released. Napster allowed people to easily share song files with eachother. This new program led to the music industrys drop in recording sales and accusations of total copyright violations. Although Napster was shut down by court order in 2001, it created the idea of free online file sharing and now there are several other programs that can be downloaded for free to get any music from anyone. Some examples of these free file sharing programs are Limewire and Ares
Apple iPod
In October of 2001 Apple introduced the biggest hit in music media, the iPod. The iPod grew in popularity rapidly. over the course of 7 years there have been 14 different versions of the iPod all with different capabilities and specialties. The iPod began with the Classic. The first 3 Classic iPods ranged between 5 and 40GB. After the release of the third classic Apple released the first iPod mini. The minis were available in 5 different colors and had a storage capacity of 4GB. After the mini's the fourth classic iPod was release which now held photos transferred from your computer via USB. Next came the iPod shuffle, a faceless iPod that used flash memory and only held 1GB. The iPod classic with the photos was now available in color (picture shown) and held up to 60GB. The second iPod mini was also out which held up to 6GB and now had a brighter color screen and a longer battery life. Replacing the iPod mini, the iPod nano was next, the nano came in black and white and held up to 4GB of information. the nano also held photos. The next classic released could now not only hold photos but hold video files also, up to 80GB of space was available on the iPod Video. Later the 2nd nano was released and came in 6 colors holding up to 6GB of music and photos. in 2006 the latest shuffle was released. Now smaller and with a convenient clip and 4 color choices holding 2 GB of music. The latest classic iPod was released in 2007 this iPod held pictures, videos and 160GB of information. Also in 2007 the third nano came out, now with video capabilities, a smaller body and bigger screen, new color choices, new interface and 3GB of memory. The most recent iPod released in 2007 was the iPodTouch, the first iPod with WiFi and a Mulit-touch interface. With the new iPod touch you can reach the safari browser, YouTube and the iTunes store to purchase music directly from your iPod. Storage for the iPod touch ranges from 8 to 32GB.
iTunes
in 2003 apple released the online music store to go along with the new iPod. iTunes allows the iPod user to manage audio and video on their computer. in iTunes, several things are possible. You can organize music into playlists with one or more libraries, edit file information, record CDs, copy files to a digital audio player, purchase music and video from the built in music store, download free podcasts, backup songs onto a CD or DVD, and encode music into a number of different audio formats.
