How the iPod Changed Music Forever

In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod. What it looked like to be a normal "MP3 Player", was actually way more than that. It was more than a product, it was a revolution.

Under Steve Jobs' direction, Jon Rubinstein brought in Tony Fadell, who had previously worked at Philips with the idea of an MP3 player with its own music store.
With the rise of the digital era, Apple saw a great opportunity to join the digital music market. While MP3 players had been available on the market since the early '90s, none became as much popular as the iPod.

One of the things that made the iPod 1st gen stand out from the crowd was the ScrollWheel, offering a sleek, intuitive way to navigate menus effortlessly. It was a mechanical mechanism made by a spinning disc like wheel.
It featured a FireWire connection for Mac and PC communication and charging.
The user interface was simple yet effective, shown on a clear monochrome LCD display.

But the device alone was nothing. Apple introduced iTunes: the perfect iPod companion.

With Apple's free software you could (and still can) legally buy digital music from the "iTunes Store" (introduced in 2003), rip your own CDs to listen them on your iPod, burn CDs with digitally bought music. 
The iTunes Store initially offered AAC 128kbps encoded files

The cool thing, is that songs started from 99 cents and some exclusive versions of singles and videos from artists like Bob Dylan, U2, Eminem, Sheryl Crow and Sting, could only be found on iTunes Store.

During the years, Apple's music players lineup expanded.
in 2004 the iPod Mini was released, in 2005 the 1st gen iPod Nano and Shuffle, in 2007 the 1st gen iPod Touch and the main lineup was re-branded to "Classic''.

The iPod U2 Special Edition is worth a mention. it was a standard black 30GB iPod 5th gen with red ClickWheel and signed back plate with names of the Irish band. An exclusive interview video was included.

In 2004, HP started selling HP branded iPods with Apple's license

In 2014, Apple discontinued the iPod Classic.

In 2017, Apple stopped selling the iPod Nano and Shuffle, defining the end of Apple's offline music players production.

In 2022 the iPod Touch was discontinued marking the end of the iPod.