Apple's iTunes Music Store launched on April 28, 2003. The store offered 200,000 tracks at launch. In its first week, customers bought more than 1 million songs.

The store was the first legal digital music retailer to offer songs from all five major record labels. Music sold for 99 cents per song, and users could listen to a 30-second preview of any song in the store.

On the one-year anniversary of the iTunes Music Store, Apple thanked its customers with a week-long "Free Song of the Day" anniversary promotion. iTunes users downloaded more than 500,000 free songs from artists recognized by Apple as having helped make iTunes a runaway success, including Foo Fighters, Avril Lavigne, Courtney Love, Annie Lennox, Jane’s Addiction, Counting Crows, Renee Fleming and Nelly Furtado.

Following the anniversary celebration, the iTunes Music Store began offering a “Free Single of the Week” from up-and-coming bands, spotlighting emerging artists and allowing iTunes customers a risk-free way to discover new music.

Apple continued its "Free Single of the Week" program for over 10 years, concluding at the end of 2014. Apple launched Apple Music in 2015 as the music industry moved away from paid downloads and towards subscription streaming services.

The complete list of free singles from 2004–2014 is documented here for posterity.

On a Mac, double-click a song or click to open the track in Music.app.