SoundJam MP is a discontinued
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...
player for
classic Mac OS
Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Mac (computer), Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and end ...
-compatible computers and
Rio-compatible hardware synchronization manager that was released in July 1999 and was available until June 2001.
Jeff Robbin and
Bill Kincaid developed SoundJam MP with assistance from Dave Heller. Robbin and Kincaid chose
Casady & Greene to publish SoundJam MP.
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...
purchased SoundJam MP in 2000 and further developed the code to create
iTunes
iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
version 1.0. Casady and Greene ceased publication of SoundJam MP in June 2001 at the request of the developers.
History
Prior to working together on SoundJam MP, Jeff Robbin and Bill Kincaid had worked for Apple in the 1990s as system software engineers assigned to the
Copland operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
, a project that was abandoned before completion. After the Copland project's cancellation, Robbin and Kincaid left Apple. Robbin went on to create
Conflict Catcher, a Mac OS utility, and Kincaid worked at a startup.
Kincaid created Mac-compatible hardware and
device driver
In the context of an operating system, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabli ...
support for the
Diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...
Rio line of digital audio players. He then enlisted Robbin to develop the front-end for the
MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...
-player software they named SoundJam MP. Dave Heller later joined them, completing the core team. The development team chose Casady & Greene to publish SoundJam MP because the company had previously published Robbin's Conflict Catcher.
David Pogue
David Welch Pogue (born March 9, 1963) is an American technology and science writer and TV presenter, and correspondent for ''CBS News Sunday Morning''.
He has hosted 18 ''Nova'' specials on PBS, including '' Nova ScienceNow'', the ''Making Stu ...
, who later became a ''New York Times'' columnist, wrote SoundJam MP's documentation.
SoundJam was released a few weeks before a competing Mac MP3 player,
Audion
The Audion was an electronic detecting or amplifying vacuum tube invented by American electrical engineer Lee de Forest as a diode in 1906.De Forest patented a number of variations of his detector tubes starting in 1906. The patent that most cle ...
, made by
Panic Inc. According to Cabel Sasser, Panic's co-founder, the competition between SoundJam and Audion was friendly and "inspiring."
Reception
SoundJam received positive reviews, and won the Best of Macworld award in 1999; it eventually secured 90% of the Mac MP3 software market. SoundJam competed with the
Audion
The Audion was an electronic detecting or amplifying vacuum tube invented by American electrical engineer Lee de Forest as a diode in 1906.De Forest patented a number of variations of his detector tubes starting in 1906. The patent that most cle ...
app, made by
Panic
Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and frantic agitation consistent with a fight-or-flight reaction. ...
. Apple hired Robbin, Kincaid and Heller, and used SoundJam's code as the foundation for iTunes.
Both companies were vying to be acquired by Apple, but since Panic was already discussing a buyout with AOL, and since Robbin and Kincaid were ex-Apple employees, Apple chose to buy SoundJam in 2000.
Acquisition
In early 2000, Apple wanted to purchase MP3 player software for use with Apple's desktop computers. Apple sought meetings with both Panic and Casady & Greene. Caught up in negotiations with
AOL
AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc.
The service traces its history to an online ...
, Panic was not able to set up a meeting with Apple. Turning instead to Casady & Greene, Apple purchased the rights to the SoundJam MP software in a deal covered by a two-year secrecy clause.
Working as employees of Apple, Robbin, Kincaid and Heller continued to develop the software which would become iTunes.
All three continue to work at Apple; Robbin is the lead developer of iTunes.
On January 9, 2001, Apple debuted iTunes
iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...
1.0 to the public. Curious Macintosh users immediately began poking through iTunes' resource fork
A resource fork is a fork of a file on Apple's classic Mac OS operating system that is used to store structured data. It is one of the two forks of a file, along with the data fork, which stores data that the operating system treats as unstruct ...
, where they discovered numerous strings and other resources that indicated iTunes was a re-engineered SoundJam MP.
After a request from Robbin and Kincaid, Casady & Greene ceased distribution of SoundJam MP on June 1, 2001.[
]
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Soundjam Mp
Classic Mac OS media players
Macintosh-only software
ITunes
Apple Inc. acquisitions