WIRED Staff
Business

Slideshow: Apple Launches Paid Music Service

Apple's Steve Jobs unveils a new online music download system on Monday. Some industry officials are praising the service as breaking down barriers to the distribution of music on the Net. Leander Kahney reports from San Francisco.
Image may contain Electronics Cell Phone Mobile Phone Phone and Ipod
Jobs also unveiled a new line of redesigned iPods, which now offer a backlit screen and front panel and 30 GB of storage, enough for 7,500 songs.Courtesy of Apple

See related story: Apple Launches Paid Music Service

Image may contain File Human Person Webpage Text and Menu

Built into iTunes (and already dubbed "Buy Tunes" by wags), the service is being hailed by musicians, analysts and executives as a breakthrough in online music distribution.

Courtesy of Apple
Image may contain Human Person Text Menu File and Page

At a big launch event in downtown San Francisco, Steve Jobs showed off Apple's new iTunes Music Store, which makes more than 200,000 songs from all five major music labels available at 99 cents a download. Some experts said the slick and easy-to-use song download service breaks down the barriers to online music distribution.

Courtesy of Apple
Image may contain Word Text File Number and Symbol

The iTunes service dispenses with subscriptions, offering 200,000 songs from all the major labels a la carte. Jobs said new songs are being added daily. The entire online library of songs at the store can be previewed as 30-second clips.

Courtesy of Apple