How iTunes came back from the dead

Most music fans will have likely not thought about the iTunes Store in years. Some, especially those born after the year 2000, may never have even used it. In 2019, Apple retired the iTunes desktop app to replace it with separate Music, TV and Podcast apps. Most industry watchers expected this to be the death knell for what was once the largest music vendor in the world. By then, streaming services including Apple Music and Spotify had already overtaken it as the de facto way to listen to music.

But fast-forward to today and the iTunes Store is re-emerging as an unlikely venue for pop stars to hawk collectibles to superfans, reach untapped audiences and bolster chart positions. Last month, pop superstar Ariana Grande surprise-released a live version of her latest album Petal as an iTunes-only exclusive. This follows a string of iTunes-exclusive releases in recent years from artists such as Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Doja Cat, Summer Walker and Tinashe.

“You can build an audience on streaming,” says Mark Mulligan, analyst at Midia Research. “But to build a fan base you have to do more than simply get a lot of streams. And that’s where downloads can come into play.” Labels are increasingly strategising major releases around the platform. Digital downloads aren’t likely to displace streaming’s dominance (which equates to about 70 per cent of global recorded-music revenue) but there’s an economic case for labels to focus on them, particularly when it comes to chart positions. One album purchase on iTunes counts as a unit sale whereas under current Billboard rules, it takes 2,500 free/ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid subscription streams to equal one album sale.

“It can be very effective with the right kind of artist and the right release,” says Stephanie Haughton, global director of marketing at ATC Management. “It can be the difference between [charting at] number one or number two.”

For some of the biggest releases of the past year, physical and digital album sales have exceeded equivalent streaming figures. Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, for instance, sold 4mn in physical and digital sales in its first week in the US compared to 522,260 streaming equivalent album units. Of those pure album sales, 358,000 came from digital album downloads, 1.76mn from CDs, 1.334mn from vinyl and 26,000 from cassettes — all formats thought to be dead but which have seen a resurgence in recent years. Grande’s Petal also jumped from No 15 to No 6 on the Billboard 200 following the surprise release of the live version on iTunes a month after the studio album came out.

These iTunes Store releases typically tack on bonus tracks, exclusive content or live versions of tracks only available via an iTunes digital download purchase in a bid to draw in a subset of fans who will purchase everything an artist releases. “It fits into this broader strategy of major labels trying to get every penny they can out of the superfans of their biggest artists,” says Mulligan.

It also doubles up as a marketing tactic to cut through the noise of the streaming era. “Putting music on Spotify now is literally like putting a needle in a haystack the size of the Empire State Building,” says Darren Lewis of UK production duo Future Cut, who has worked with artists such as Lily Allen, Pink Pantheress and Little Mix.

US singer Tinashe, who’s currently experiencing a breakthrough with her latest album Popstar, utilised a time-limited version of her album with four added tracks only available on iTunes which furthered the buzz surrounding her album. The album landed at No 6 on the Billboard 200 after selling 22,000 physical and digital albums, the highest chart position of her career thus far.

Nostalgia for a pre-streaming era plays a part in iTunes’ resurgence, says James Kirkham, founder of creative consultancy Iconic and the former chief business officer of Defected Records. CD sales in the US increased by 16 per cent in the first half of 2026; sales of second-hand iPods are also on the up. “It’s about having that receipt or a souvenir, and a feeling that you’ve got ownership of something,” he says.

One of the most explicit plays into nostalgia came from Charli XCX, who chose to release the B-sides to her latest album Music, Fashion, Film exclusively on iTunes because it felt “counter intuitive to the whole ethos of those songs” to release them on streaming services.

There’s a risk this could all backfire. While streaming has kept the cost of entry low for casual listeners, superfans wanting to engage with their artist face rising costs, particularly buoyed by concert ticket prices. Adding exclusive content gated behind an iTunes purchase could be viewed as just another ploy to run the superfan well dry.

“Fandom is always a tribal tightrope,” says Kirkham. “If you get it right, the enthusiasm is infectious and the fans will do the marketing for you . . . If you trade on the wrong side, it can absolutely build resentment.” Swift has been criticised for releasing dozens of different variants of her albums, with critics viewing the tactic as a cash grab as well as a strategy to block other artists on the charts.

It’s also not clear how effective strategising around iTunes can be for artists without a rabid pop-star fandom. While ATC’s Haughton says the iTunes release can make sense for some artists, she’s found mixed success with the strategy when she’s deployed it for artists such as The Hives and Samia.

“It didn’t really move the dial,” she says. “It’s just about trying to hit every platform we can.” Still, the strategy shows no signs of slowing down. In a climate where labels struggle to bring attention to their artists, digital downloads are one avenue of marketing that is less reliant on algorithms.

“Artists are now looking for ways to engage people into the album as an art form as opposed to just listening to their three favourite songs,” says Future Cut’s Lewis. “If you’re going to go and spend a year making a record then you want people to listen to it in the way it was intended.”

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