|
|
|
Timeline of Internet Music History by Alex Cosper 1969 - Internet era begins with the unveiling of ARPANET 1989 - World Wide Web developed by Tim Berners Lee at CERN 1995 - Internet usage begins to become widespread 1995 - AudioNet is founded as an early internet radio company 1997 - MP3.com, founded by Michael Robertson and Greg Flores, debuts in December 1998 - Derek Sivers launches online music store for indie artists, CDBaby in Woodstock, NY 1999 - First version of RSS is created by Netscape employees Dan Libby and Ramanathan Guha 1999 - Napster debuts in June as a free music file-swapping service 1999 - AOL acquires internet radio site Spinner.com 1999 - Yahoo acquires Broadcast.com, formerly AudioNet, for $5.7 billion 1999 - LAUNCH Media introduces LAUNCHcast Internet Radio 1999 - Cox Interactive Media buys 10% stake in MP3.com and invests $45 million in June 1999 - MP3.com goes public and raises over $370 million, making it the largest tech IPO to date 1999 - GarageBand.com is founded as an online music community 2000 - Soma FM debuts as an internet radio station in February 2000 - Metallica files lawsuit against Napster in March for allowing leaked song to circulate 2000 - RIAA sues Napster for copyright infingement 2000 - Court rules in favor of UMG vs MP3.com over My.MP3.com copyright infringements 2000 - Savage Beast Technologies designs custom internet radio software 2001 - Vivendi Universal acquires MP3.com for $372 million in stock 2001 - Napster is ordered by a court to shut down in July due to copyright infringement 2001 - Apple introduces the iPod and iTunes Music Player 2001 - PressPlay launches in December as an online music store joint venture of UMG and Sony Music 2001 - Tim Reid's Listen.com transforms Aladdin into Rhapsody music service, which launches in December 2001 - Yahoo acquires Launch for $12 million, which is later rebranded as Yahoo Music 2002 - Yahoo shuts down Broadcast.com, which had become rebranded as Yahoo! Broadcast Services 2002 - Friendster launches as an early social media site 2003 - Roxio acquires PressPlay 2002 - A court forces bankrupt Napster to liquidate its assets 2002 - Yahoo! Music Radio, formerly LAUNCHcast, debuts 2003 - MySpace.com launches in August as a social media site that caters to indie artists 2003 - iTunes Music Store debuts 2004 - Savage Beast Technologies becomes Pandora Media debuts as a paid then advertising service 2004 - Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook, initially as a Harvard social media site, patterned after Friendster 2004 - Former MTV star Adam Curry launches what is believed to be first podcast, Daily Source Code 2005 - Apple's iTunes 4.9 begins to support podcasting 2005 - YouTube is founded by three employees of PayPal, in November it secures over $11 million in funding 2005 - NewsCorp purchases MySpace for $580 million 2005 - Yahoo Music is rebranded as "Y! Music" 2005 - iTunes becomes top music retailer in the United States 2006 - PC World lists PressPlay as one of the world's worst tech products of all time 2006 - In November, Google acquires YouTube for over $1.6 billion in stock 2006 - ReverbNation launches as a service for indie musicians 2006 - Twitter is launched by employees of podcasting service Odeo 2007 - SoundCloud launches, allowing indie musicians to upload music online 2007 - Apple releases the first iPhone, which is part iPod 2008 - Roxio rebrands its PressPlay music service as Napster 2.0 2008 - In April Facebook surpasses MySpace as the leading social network, on Alexa rankings 2008 - Clear Channel launches iheartmusic.com as a radio aggregator online service 2008 - Clear Channel launches its free radio streaming service, iHeartRadio 2008 - Derek Silvers sells CDBaby to Disc Makers for over $20 million 2008 - Best Buy purchases Napster for $121 million 2008 - Spotify launches in Sweden as a music stream service in October 2010 - GarageBand.com shuts down 2010 - In September Apple introduces iTunes Ping as a social media music sharing services 2010 - Napster co-founder Sean Parker begins investing in and working with Spotify to secure label deals 2010 - Rdio debuts as music streaming service 2011 - Under Best Buy, Napster merges with Rhapsody 2011 - In June, Spotify secures $100 million in funding, raising company value to $1 billion 2011 - Spotify launches its music streaming service in the US 2011 - Google Music Play launches in November 2011 - After major losses, NewsCorp sells MySpace to Scientific Media for $35 million 2012 - Goldman Sachs helps secure $100 million in funding for Spotify, raising its value to $3 billion 2012 - In September, Apple shuts down Ping 2012 - Beats, founded by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, acquires online music service MOG 2012 - In December, Beats hires Trent Reznor as Chief Creative Officer for music service "Daisy" 2013 - AOL suddenly shuts down Spinner.com in April 2013 - Rdio introduces Vdio, a movie and TV streaming service 2013 - Pandora purchases its first terrestrial radio station, KXMZ/Rapid City, SD 2013 - Film Downloaded documents the rise and fall of Napster 2014 - In January "Daisy" project is launched with new name "Beats Music" 2014 - Apple acquires Beats Electronics, which includes Beats Music, for over $3 billion 2015 - After years of decline, overshadowed by Facebook, Friendster suspends its social media service 2015 - By June, Spotify has secured over $500 million in additional funding 2015 - Apple Music streaming service debuts in June 2015 - Rdio declares bankruptcy in November as assets are sold to Pandora for $75 million 2015 - Yahoo! Music redirects traffic to www.yahoo.com/music 2016 - Time Inc. announces it has purchased MySpace 2016 - Spotify raises $1 billion in financing through debt 2016 - Rhapsody brand is phased out and becomes Napster 2016 - In June, Spotify has 100 million active users 2017 - In March, Spotify has 50 million paying subscribers  © Playlist Research. All rights reserved. |
