The secondary and tertiary effects of iTunes on the music business are almost too many too enumerate. The American music industry spent much of the ’80s and ’90s trying to phase out the physical single, to focus everything on event albums that could be sold on CD at higher and higher prices—so that an album with one really big hit song, by Chumbawamba or Vanilla Ice, could climb to absurd multi-platinum sales. Suddenly, iTunes unbundled albums and allowed you to purchase any song on an album for 99 cents. One-hit wonders, and artists who didn’t generate that certain mix of brand loyalty and cult of personality that true stardom engenders, would never have such an easy ride ever again.