Building the iTunes Music Store library is a collaborative effort that even Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs participates in. The programming director of the store is a former radio deejay who's constantly looking for places to find old and out-of-print music. His team of music programmers are experts in world music, hip-hop, rock and classical, to name a few genres. In addition to their own expertise, the iTunes staff regularly collects suggestions from Apple Computer employees, customers and anyone who's looking to fill a hole in his or her music collection.
"Even Steve himself will occasionally send me an e-mail pointing me in the direction of a missing album or artist that he's looking for, and we'll go and find it," said Alex Luke, director of music programming and label relations for iTunes. ITunes, the leader of the digital music services pack, has a catalog of over 700,000 songs -- but that's not nearly enough for Apple. To maintain its lead, the company is on a hunt to find exclusive music, everything from out-of-print singles in music company vaults to songs that have never been pressed onto a CD and even recordings from the estates of deceased artists.
News source: Wired
