If You Invested $1000 In Apple When iTunes Was Launched 23 Years Ago Today, Here’s How Much You’d Have

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) launched iTunes about 23 years ago, forever changing how people consume music. Initially launched as a music player for Mac users, iTunes’ impact on the music industry would be profound over the next decade.

Like many other products and services launched under his leadership, iTunes was a Jobs project, too. He noticed the opportunity that a digital music marketplace provided, and brought together five music labels – again, it was not an easy task.

After months of hard negotiations, Apple onboarded Warner Music, Universal, BMG, EMI and Sony, launching the iTunes Music store in April 2003, with 200,000 songs.

The rest, as they say, is history.

A Music Revolution Began

On Jan. 9, 2001, iTunes launched. A little over two years later, the iTunes store debuted. It allowed users to buy and download individual tracks as well as albums. This move also set the tone for the era of digital music, removing barriers that existed at the time, and reducing the reliance on music CDs.

See Also: If You Invested $1000 In Apple When It Announced NeXT Acquisition To Bring Back Steve Jobs, Here’s How Much You’d Have

Over the years, the iTunes store evolved from being just a music store to one that sold music videos, TV shows, podcasts, and more. It allowed music labels to stem the loss of revenue due to piracy since users could now pick and choose the songs they wanted to buy, instead of paying for songs they didn’t want to pay for.

Coupled with iPods, iTunes store helped Apple become the largest music vendor in the U.S. in April 2008. By February 2010, Apple became the largest music vendor in the world, having sold 10 billion songs.

Now, let’s take a look at how Apple stock has fared since the launch of iTunes 23 years ago.

Apple stock price from Jan. 9, 2001 to Jan. 9, 2024

Apple’s stock, adjusted for stock splits and other corporate actions, was $0.30692 on Jan. 9, 2001.

Now, 23 years later, its stock price is $185.56 — an increase of 60,359% during this period.

Value of a $1,000 investment in Apple stock, and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices, respectively, from Jan. 9, 2001, till Jan. 9, 2024

If you had invested $1,000 in Apple stock on Jan. 9, 2001, today, you would have $604,588, 23 years later.

On the other hand, a similar investment in the Nasdaq index would be worth $6,080,…