Could 24, 2013: Apple begins phasing out the choice to obtain film trailers from its as soon as enormously fashionable iTunes Film Trailers web site.
The transfer alerts a serious change in the way in which individuals eat digital content material because the web evolves. Downloads will proceed to say no, as streaming providers like YouTube and Netflix decide up steam.
iTunes Film Trailers: Made for the web
Apple launched its iTunes Film Trailers web site (archived model right here: trailers.apple.com) within the late Nineteen Nineties alongside its QuickTime 5 software program. Within the days earlier than streaming video providers like YouTube, Apple’s website rapidly grew to become the go-to place for followers wanting to look at film trailers at the next decision than was accessible wherever else.
Coming quickly after the launch of the internet-ready unique iMac (the place the “i” stood for “web”), the iTunes trailers website exemplified Apple’s embrace of the net in a approach it largely did not do beforehand. At across the similar time, Apple launched its on-line Apple Retailer, which capitalized on Dell’s profitable gross sales mannequin.
1999’s Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace trailer grew to become the primary massive hit for Apple’s website. (The iTunes Film Trailers website got here into being, in accordance with Apple staff, after Cupertino was appalled by the low-quality encoding of the Phantom Menace trailer hosted by Lucasfilm.)
After organising a assembly with the film studio, Apple began internet hosting trailers that seemed much better than the RealVideo different of the time. Apple didn’t pay for this new content material that it hosted. Nonetheless, Apple did pay for the bandwidth. The association, just like the revenue share Apple CEO Steve Jobs labored out for iTunes quickly after, labored in each events’ favor.
The rise of YouTube fuels shift to streaming video
The know-how confirmed off Apple’s tech prowess and pushed QuickTime downloads. In the meantime, the film studios received free promoting. Just a little greater than a decade later, nonetheless, the panorama had modified.
YouTube, which launched in 2005, had turn into a family identify, and it gave customers prompt entry to streaming film trailers. The one remaining attraction of the iTunes Film Trailers website was for individuals who wished to obtain 1080p copies slightly than the 720p variations that streaming websites provided on the time.
The precise purpose(s) for Apple ending film trailer downloads has by no means been revealed. Nonetheless, it marked a particular turning level within the decline of downloads and the continued rise of streaming. By 2015, U.S. income from streaming music edged out downloads for the primary time.
Streaming leads the way in which to Apple TV+
Greater than a decade after ceasing downloads from the iTunes Film Trailers website, the panorama has shifted nearly solely towards streaming. Apple dismembered the venerable iTunes, pushing its capabilities into three distinct apps in 2019 — Apple TV, Apple Music and Apple Podcasts. And the corporate pulled the plug on the Home windows model of iTunes in 2024.
Whereas Apple continues to promote full films for obtain through the Apple TV app, streaming providers resembling Netflix and Disney+ lead the market at the moment. Apple pursues that very same path, pumping out content material for its Apple TV+ subscription service, which launched in 2019.
As Apple’s streaming video service regularly provides new unique content material, it appears to lastly be discovering an viewers. In 2021, Apple TV+ grew to become the primary streamer to win an Academy Award for finest image, due to indie flick CODA. New reveals like Ted Lasso, Severance and Silo additionally grew to become reputable hits. And nowadays, films like Argylle and reveals like Darkish Matter rapidly rise to prime the streaming charts.
What was the primary film trailer you keep in mind downloading from Apple’s iTunes Film Trailers website? Go away your feedback beneath.
Screenshot: Apple