Apple is reportedly moving away from its iTunes brand and the music library may end after 18 years as Apple breaks out Podcasts, Video, and Music into separate apps with the upcoming MacOS 10.15. iTunes was launched nearly two decades ago and looks like Apple wants to retire the world-shattering icon.
It was hard to convince some of the major labels(UMG & EMI) but they later agreed to put their music on iTunes and Apple agreed to put DRM on their songs. Demand was high and 18 hours after they first went live, the service had sold approximately 275,000 songs. pic.twitter.com/OAT43kftOJ
— Techweez (@techweez) April 29, 2018
Apple will replace iTunes with standalone apps for music, television, and podcast tomorrow during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference keynote in San Jose, California.
iTunes turns 15 and so far over 10 billion songs and 15 billion apps have been downloaded. And Apple is reportedly shutting down iTunes Music Downloads on March 31st, 2019 https://t.co/dK5Aeodtad
— Techweez (@techweez) April 29, 2018
The move was rumored for a while and it is finally happening. iTunes users should expect that the new music app to offer some of the same functionalities that the music library currently has including “smart playlists, advanced library management, syncing with iPods and iOS devices, and even disc reading and burning,” but with a sleekier interface that ditches the outdated and oft-bemoaned features.
iTunes will be remembered as revolutionizing the music industry as the all-encompassing media product presented artists and music lovers a digital-era first sustainable user-friendly way to listen to music. Weirdly, the app was being advertised with the slogan “Rip, mix, burn” and the music industry weren’t pleased. Before, music labels were fighting tooth and nail to combat illegal file sharing on Napster.
“It really took a company that was able to bridge those two things and come up with an attractive consumer product.”
~ Warner Music’s vice president Paul Vidich on the iTunes Store’s 10th anniversary.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting iTunes, too.
— Anil Dash 🥭 (@anildash) January 29, 2015
iTunes really ended when in 2014, Apple acquired Beats Electronics and its music service, Beats Music to become Apple Music.
Apple is now shifting to service as hardware sales continue to see less than stellar performance. They recently launched a news service app and an Apple TV+ service later this year.
The new separate apps will be Marzipan applications just like Apple News app and will share design and codebase similar to their iOS counterparts.
I am now fairly confident based on evidence I don't wish to make public at this point that Apple is planning new (likely UIKit) Music, Podcasts, perhaps even Books, apps for macOS, to join the new TV app. I expect the four to be the next wave of Marzipan apps. Grain of salt, etc
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) April 5, 2019
iTunes will still exist for some time in the future as it is the only way to interact and manually sync between the iPod and iOS devices.
You can now listen to podcasts directly on the web instead of the iTunes app as episode links will use a podcasts.apple.com URL. Also, some itunes.apple.com links for songs and artists now redirect to music.apple.com.
I haven’t seen it reported elsewhere, but as of last weekend all https://t.co/tCyWJ9I1D3 links redirect to https://t.co/c1nzdCWhSp — a likely indicator that the brand is done (the app will be fine for those of us who need it.)
— Craig Hockenberry (@chockenberry) June 2, 2019
Other category-specific links include apps.apple.com, podcasts.apple.com, tv.apple.com, movies.apple.com, and books.apple.com.
— Kyle Seth Gray ✈️ @ WWDC and Layers (@kylesethgray) June 2, 2019
iTunes’ Facebook and Instagram Pages cleared up
Apple has removed posts and pictures from the iTunes Facebook and Instagram pages as it gears up for tomorrow’s WWDC event and further show that iTunes is being decommissioned. Apple has migrated its iTunes social media accounts except for Twitter to their Apple TV Facebook and Instagram accounts.
*reading the eulogy at iTunes’s funeral* I’m glad it’s dead and everyone responsible for it should be in prison
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) May 31, 2019
