1994, so late :-)! Frank Zappa proposed something akin to the iTunes store and streaming in 1983: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/frank-zappa-invented-n

1994, so late :-)! Frank Zappa proposed something akin to the iTunes store and streaming in 1983: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/frank-zappa-invented-napster-in-1983.243000/ https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/frank-zappa-invented-... We propose to acquire the rights to digitally duplicate and store THE BEST of every record company's difficult-to-move Quality Catalog Items [Q.C.I.], store them in a central processing location, and have them accessible by phone or cable TV, directly patchable into the user's home taping appliances, with the option of direct digital-to-digital transfer to F-1 (SONY consumer level digital tape encoder), Beta Hi-Fi, or ordinary analog cassette (requiring the installation of a rentable D-A converter in the phone itself . . . the main chip is about $12). [...] The consumer has the option of subscribing to one or more Interest Categories, charged at a monthly rate, without regard for the quantity of music he or she decides to tape. Providing material in such quantity at a reduced cost could actually diminish the desire to duplicate and store it, since it would be available any time day or night. The only thing he was missing were hackers, mega-hackers even: We require a LARGE quantity of money and the services of a team of mega-hackers to write the software for this system. Most of the hardware devices are, even as you read this, available as off-the-shelf items, just waiting to be plugged into each other so they can put an end to "THE RECORD BUSINESS" as we now know it.