One hundred million songs.
Twenty-one years after iTunes was invented and the first iPod debuted, we’ve gone from 1,000 songs in your pocket to 100,000x on Apple Music. It’s an impressive development by any measure. The entire history of music, present and future is at the palm of your hand or voice command.
More music than you can listen to in a lifetime or many lifetimes. More music than any other platform. Easily the greatest collection of music, in any form, ever.
One hundred million songs – a number that is growing and increasing exponentially. But it’s more than a number, it represents something far more significant—the tectonic shift in the music production and distribution business over the past two decades.
In the 1960s, only 5,000 new albums were released each year. Today, anywhere in the world in 167 countries and territories, any artist with a description can write and record a song and release it internationally on Apple Music. Every day, more than 20,000 singers and songwriters are delivering new songs to Apple Music — songs that make our catalog bigger than ever. A day before. One Hundred Million Songs is proof that it’s a more democratic place where anyone, even a budding artist, can make music from their bedroom and find the next big hit.
This is not only an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come, but also a time to look forward to the work that remains to be done. At Apple Music, as you can see from our curated playlists, treating humanity is always central to everything we do. And ways you can’t, like the human touch that drives our recommendation algorithms. Now more than ever, we know that investing in human therapy will be key to being the best we can be at connecting artists and audiences.
With such a huge range of songs, we know you’ll want someone to guide you. Gone are the days of shuffling through your library, with our expert radio hosts lighting your way or a hand-curated playlist to help you discover new favorites and forgotten gems.