SoundJam MP

SoundJam MP

Original author(s)	Jeff Robbin and Bill Kincaid
Developer(s)	Casady & Greene
Initial release	07/13/1998
Stable release	2.5.3 / 04/11/2001
Operating system	Mac OS
Platform	Macintosh
Type	audio player
Website	http://www.casadyg.com/ (no longer active)

SoundJam MP was an early MP3 player for the Mac OS, bought in 2000 by Apple and renamed iTunes. The program was written by Jeff Robbin and Bill Kincaid, published by Casady & Greene.

History and launch

Robbin and Kincaid worked for Apple in the 1990s as system software engineers on their operating system project Copland; the project was later abandoned. Both left Apple, where Robbin created Conflict Catcher and Kincaid worked at a startup.

After listening to a show on the radio channel NPR, Kincaid created hardware and device driver support for the Diamond Rio line of digital audio players. He then enlisted Jeff Robbin to develop the front-end for an MP3-playing software they named SoundJam MP. Dave Heller completed the core team. The three chose Casady & Greene as distributor, whom Jeff had previously worked with to distribute Conflict Catcher. David Pogue wrote documentation.

The software saw early success in the Mac music player market, competing with Panic's Audion.

Acquisition

In early 2000 Apple was looking to purchase an MP3 player and approached both Casady & Greene (SoundJam) and Panic (Audion). Because Panic was caught up in negotiations with AOL, the meeting never took place. Turning to Casady & Greene, Apple purchased the rights to the SoundJam software in a deal covered by a two-year secrecy clause.

SoundJam MP was renamed iTunes. Jeff, Bill, and Dave became the original developers of the software. All three continue to work at Apple, with Jeff as the current lead developer of iTunes.

On January 9, 2001, iTunes 1.0 was released. Macintosh users immediately began poking through iTunes's resource fork, where they discovered numerous strings and other resources that indicated iTunes was a re-engineered SoundJam MP. Casady & Greene ceased distribution of SoundJam MP on June 1, 2001 at the request of the developers.