Apple Aiming to End iTunes Music Downloads in Two Years [Update: Apple Says 'Not True']

[Ethosik]

So if I make a rumor saying that Microsoft will end all Xbox One development and shut down that division next year, and they come out with a report saying "not true". You would believe me over Microsoft? Okay.

I swear I heard that from a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy that works in Microsoft!

 

[mantan]

So if I make a rumor saying that Microsoft will end all Xbox One development and shut down that division next year, and they come out with a report saying "not true". You would believe me over Microsoft? Okay.

I swear I heard that from a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy that works in Microsoft!

Apples and oranges. A rumor saying MS would shut down the the XBox in lieu of any other product or for no viable business reason makes no sense.

Apple trying to shut down a slowing business to push a streaming alternative that provides a potentially growing revenue stream (and product they've been heavily promoting) seems plausible. (Even though it would be a d1ck move)

 

[Romy90210]

Digitalmusicnews.com really??? What's next... An article on Crustytheclown.com about how Apple plans to hire a clown to run it's itune's division??? Mcrumors is just as bad as CNBC....

 

[dannys1]

Of course, in 6 months, those same people won't care about facts, but will still say 'Apple yanked iTunes downloads, and only put them back after people complained. I bet they'll do it again soon! Never trust Apple.'

Whats made me laugh most is that I read I thread last night in which everyone complained the Macbook Pro isn't being updated often enough or at a fast enough rate and it should be incremental every 6 months and big updates once a year....

...and yet the non-techies that don't really buy Apple stuff always complain "no point in buying anything by Apple they release a new one about a week later..."

 

[Thunderhawks]

Not to mention that selling your CDs, while still having all your music on your computer would be classified as stealing (since the person buying the CD now owns the copy of the music).

Remember when Garth Brooks and a few other wanted a cut from used CDs? Same here.

 

[Ethosik]

Apples and oranges. A rumor saying MS would shut down the the XBox in lieu of any other product or for no viable business reason makes no sense.

Apple trying to shut down a slowing business to push a streaming alternative that provides a potentially growing revenue stream (and product they've been heavily promoting) seems plausible. (Even though it would be a d1ck move)

Nope it is the same thing that people are complaining about. "Apple's response is too vague. Will it be shut down in 5 years instead?"

Same situation as mine. "Microsoft's not true is too vague. Will it be shut down in two years instead? Why did this rumor come out anyway?"

 

[macfacts]

Interesting Apple was so quick to deny this rumor but not the headphone jack rumor.

 

[daniel1948]

... we see the real problem that Apple has right now. Not one of us could count on or depend on the original rumor being untrue. Apple has so messed up their reputation with reversals, product drops, aging products, flops, etc. that no one can count on Apple any more. ...

Of course you can count on Apple: You can count on them (and every other corporation) to do whatever they think will make them the most money. That's the free market system. In fact, they have a legal obligation to their stockholders to do whatever seems likely to make them the most money. Why would they care what a minority of their customers want? If you owned a business, would you cater to the minority of your customers, or to the majority? It would be silly to expect otherwise.

 

[davidhands]

The Corporate dream - millions of customers with no choice but to keep on paying month after month after month. Got your cloud access device? It's not like this hasn't been intimated for the past few years. No more local hard drives, no more hard copies of discs - just subscriptions, subscriptions and more subscriptions.
Expect all the major players to follow suit.

In the future, the only right you will have is to help enrich Mother Corporation.

 

[macfacts]

It's amazing how people take every report on MacRumors as instant fact and then go absolutely in sane about how bad Apple are.

Then a few hours later Apple come out and say "no, this isn't happening"

Maybe the fact people think the rumor is believable is more telling about how people view Apple now adays. Why is it believable? Because this is stuff they expect Apple to do, stuff to make investors more money.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

I like to OWN my music.

Yes me too. It would be great if Apple offered various file options when downloading. They could offer AAC 256k, Apple Lossless and uncompressed. Give people the choice of which one they want.

 

[daniel1948]

The top people at Apple really must have rocks in their heads.

Is that why they are one of the biggest corporations around, with so much cash on hand they could buy Texas if they wanted it (though I can't imagine who would)? If the top folks at Apple have rocks in their heads, I wish I had a few of those kinds of rocks in my head. It would be nice to have a company that rakes in a gazillion dollars a year, can pay its top people hundreds of millions, and still have more cash in reserve than Scrooge McDuck, sitting on his mountain of gold double-eagles.

 

[Rogifan]

Macworld has some good suggestions for improvements to Music.

http://www.macworld.com/article/3069552/streaming-services/6-ways-apple-can-improve-apple-music.html

Jimmy Iovine made such a big deal about human curation and yet there's little evidence music has better curation than Spotify or anyone else. If Apple really wants to improve this service he needs to not be involved. I will say though that decoupling iTunes from Apple Music isn't the answer. I don't want to have to use separate apps for music I 'own' vs what I'm streaming from Music. Apple just needs to get a lot better at matching.

 

[Mac 128]

Interesting Apple was so quick to deny this rumor but not the headphone jack rumor.

Based on this previous rumor and history basically repeating itself, perhaps that's confirmation the headphone jack is not going to be removed, and iTunes downloads definitely are:

Macrumors, Sep 22, 2014:
"So why would Apple plan to shut down Beats Music, as a TechCrunch headline reports?
Answer: It's not.

Tom Neumayr, says the TechCrunch story is "not true", but wouldn't elaborate."

 

[jonnysods]

Thankful for this. Unless Apple want to reimburse me for all the money I've invested in their music, and then all the CD's and crap that I've put into iTunes over the years.

I do see this happening still one day, given the increases in data for people's phones.

 

[macfacts]

... You can't inherit a streaming subscription.

You can't inherit the music you buy on iTunes neither. If you do a internet search for Bruce Willis Apple music, you'll see the problem about trying to do that.

 

[themick4u]

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE owning my own music in MP3/M4a formats!!!!

 

[phillipduran]

So you can pay $10.00 a month instead.

Ya pretty much. The pay for it, walk away and use product for the rest of your life model is not looked upon highly these days. They want subscriptions so that they can keep your wallet at the table. If you ever get satisfied with your owned music collection, you can close your itunes account and never pay another penny. Now if they make it subscription only, they will see you at the table for $10 a month for the rest of your life.

 

[bobob]

Anyone remember the exact date when MacRumors went from being Apple's biggest fans to their biggest trolls?

They were only reporting an article published on another website.

Yet no mention of that in the matter-of-fact headline: "Apple Aiming to End iTunes Music Downloads in Two Years".

But I do understand that without clickbait headlines, that ad sales slow down. It's just that it seems to be a continuing trend since MacRumors was one of the early instigators of the false bending rumor by promoting a suspicious single post to the front page and then profiting to the tune of 517+ pages of comments in these forums.

 

[OllyW]

Yet no mention of that in the matter-of-fact headline: "Apple Aiming to End iTunes Music Downloads in Two Years".

The headline of the original article is "Apple Terminating Music Downloads ‘Within 2 Years'" so MR was just mirroring it. The original article was also credited and linked to in the first sentence of the MR piece.

 

[Black Magic]

Cable is paying for media as a service and no one seems to mind.

Probably because there is value there and it's always been like that. Besides, having individual downloads you can purchase is still "paying for it".

I find it disturbing that you are arguing for less choice for us consumers and you are implying that you are ok with us getting another endless bill. Do you work for the music companies?

 

[840quadra]

Glad this isn't true (so they say). I still mostly purchase music. I need to keep my old iPhones and iPods happy too .

 

[sMiK]

couldn't care less if they did that, but financially that is bringing them too much money - so they don't. I really cannot understand why people still want to "own" the actual files. I really don't.

 

[iSneeze67]

There are rumors and then there is click bait. This is a bad article and should be removed. Hey, my source says Apple is going out of business next year. UPDATE: Nope. CLICK HERE.

 

[sMiK]

I think that (buffering buffering buffering) is a really good ( buffering buffering) idea and it's not like there are (buffering buffering) times when you have no wifi and must use ( buffering) cell ph(buffering)one data, which quickly eats into your data cap.

try offline mode... save the playlist that you want to be available offline and no buffering.