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

[lowejazz]

If the past 3 years of Apples's missteps and blunders with iTunes are an indication of future changes, I'm certain Apple will find a way to make once great iTunes even more user UNfriendly and dangerous for any serious music collector!

I switched to the look alike "Swinsian" a year ago to manage and play my 400 GB music collection... very basic, but not toxic to collectors as is iTunes.

 

[pubwvj]

News for Urbanites: Streaming doesn't work everywhere. There are still billions of people who live in areas where there is no streaming. I live in the third world country of Vermont (located within the USA). Streaming is not an option for most of Vermont. Cell service is non-existant in many rural locations where half the country still lives and even more people in other countries. Internet connections are slow in many rural places so bogging them down with streaming is a really bad idea. I listen to the music on my iPodTouch while I work on my farm. There is no option for streaming.

On top of all that I want to own my own music library. I already do. What Apple is going to do is simply stop getting revenue for music sales from me. Instead I'll buy from Amazon or just buy CDs and transfer them to my computer so I can listen to them on my iPodTouch.

Apple loses out in every scenario with this idea.

 

[daniel1948]

... What Apple is going to do is simply stop getting revenue for music sales from me. [...] Apple loses out in every scenario with this idea.

Except that they're not. It was a rumor. It's been denied. Somebody needs to shoot this thread in the head. It's like a Zombie, unstoppable.

 

[Luscious]

Except that they're not. It was a rumor. It's been denied. Somebody needs to shoot this thread in the head. It's like a Zombie, unstoppable.

Except they denied the entire rumor including the "two year" part which is really a non-denial denial. If they stopped in 3 years their denial wouldn't have been a lie yet the rumor wouldn't have been false in its entirety either.

It's the spirit of the rumor, that purchasing digital music that you can download without DRM is coming to an end soon, that has people upset. If the time table is off by a few years people will still be pissed off and should be. Streaming is great for some but having the option to purchase a file without DRM that you can play on a multitude of devices via a multitude of software without losing access to it if you stop paying a monthly fee is what people want to keep around.

If I'm mistaken and Apple denies the concept and not the concept plus the time table then it's far to tell people not to pay any attention to it. The concept is what is pissing people off. As it should!!!!

 

[thermodynamic]

This would be a big mistake I think.

I have no plans to ever subscribe to Apple Music or any subscription service, so if they shut down paid iTunes downloads, they'll be losing money from me every month, and my money would be shifted to other companies to buy my music, like Amazon or the physical CDs.

Don't do it, Apple.

Used CDs will be around for a long time, and those cost less.
[doublepost=1463099829][/doublepost]

Except that they're not. It was a rumor. It's been denied. Somebody needs to shoot this thread in the head. It's like a Zombie, unstoppable.

With all the news articles of leaked forthcoming Apple products and other rumors, and they turned out to be true, and how this current rumor is slated to take place in a few years from now, chances are all this is just testing the waters and seeing how the serfish customers respond.

 

[mguzzi]

I can buy music from Amazon and Google play significantly cheaper than I can buy it form iTunes so I just buy my music other places and ad it to my iTunes library. I also still have iTunes Match.

I will never pay $120.00 a year for Apple Music when I can get an Amazon prime subscription with many more benefits at a lower cost.

 

[Boyd01]

News for Urbanites: Streaming doesn't work everywhere.

Exactly. I live in a rural area that is mostly state forest. All I can get here is lousy Verizon DSL that tops out at 1 megabit/sec download on a really good day. Nobody is ever going to run fiber to my house. Have spent quite a bit of time ripping CD's and DVD's and putting them on an iTunes server that works nicely with two Apple TV's, a MacBook Air and iDevices.

I want to have my own local media library. I really hope Apple doesn't start making this hard because it's one of the main reasons I continue using their products.

 

[redfirebird08]

I used Rhapsody back in the day when Steve Jobs was adamantly against streaming. I think both should co-exist. People should have the choice to buy downloads or stream.

 

[Ray mr]

They do this I will leave the eco system.

 

[dampfnudel]

ding! ding! ding!
We got a winner!

That's how I see it too. It's obvious why they are doing it.

Yeah, make more money by cutting expenses and "forcing" or at least attempting to force people to pay for a Apple Music subscription. A subscription that will most likely get a little more expensive once Apple feels they have the upper hand.

 

[nt5672]

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.

Lets see, yes I have owned my own company. Have you? Yes, we found small niche customers to be very important for many reasons. 1) They gave us the best reviews. 2) They recommended us to much larger purchasers. 3) They bought repeatedly, even if at lower value. 4) They showed a lot of loyalty. 4) They typically required more complex products which improved our qualifications and let us sell to a much larger array of customers.

The cost of small unimportant customers, done correctly, gives a much better return that the same amount spent on marketing. And the reality is that this is exactly how Apple survived to become the company it is today, a massively successful one-hit wonder, with no staying power. Apple needs to take care of its niche customers to keep the base it needs to survive between number one hits.

 

[Boyd01]

I find it really ironic. I bought one of the first 5000 Apple ][ computers in 1978, got a "Fat Mac" 512k in 1985. The personal computer revolution was supposed to free the individual from the big corporate data center.

Now we have come full circle, with Apple operating the world's biggest data centers and doing everything they can to make us more and more dependent on them. Tim Cook turned out to be the face on the screen in the 1984 ad, and there's nobody to throw a sledge hammer through it.

 

[Black Magic]

Except they denied the entire rumor including the "two year" part which is really a non-denial denial. If they stopped in 3 years their denial wouldn't have been a lie yet the rumor wouldn't have been false in its entirety either.

It's the spirit of the rumor, that purchasing digital music that you can download without DRM is coming to an end soon, that has people upset. If the time table is off by a few years people will still be pissed off and should be. Streaming is great for some but having the option to purchase a file without DRM that you can play on a multitude of devices via a multitude of software without losing access to it if you stop paying a monthly fee is what people want to keep around.

If I'm mistaken and Apple denies the concept and not the concept plus the time table then it's far to tell people not to pay any attention to it. The concept is what is pissing people off. As it should!!!!

Apple just can't win. They deny the rumor and folks still don't believe them. Now folks are stretching saying that they denied 2 years but what about 3-10 years? It's ridiculous the thought process folks have.

I don't know which is worse at this point, the paranoid users or MaceRumors for keeping this thread alive after Apple clearly debunked it.

 

[Gaprofitt]

News for Urbanites: Streaming doesn't work everywhere. There are still billions of people who live in areas where there is no streaming. I live in the third world country of Vermont (located within the USA). Streaming is not an option for most of Vermont. Cell service is non-existant in many rural locations where half the country still lives and even more people in other countries. Internet connections are slow in many rural places so bogging them down with streaming is a really bad idea. I listen to the music on my iPodTouch while I work on my farm. There is no option for streaming.

On top of all that I want to own my own music library. I already do. What Apple is going to do is simply stop getting revenue for music sales from me. Instead I'll buy from Amazon or just buy CDs and transfer them to my computer so I can listen to them on my iPodTouch.

Apple loses out in every scenario with this idea.

This is non-sense, you offline sync when home and listen on your farmland. No streaming or cell service required.

 

[duervo]

I find it really ironic. I bought one of the first 5000 Apple ][ computers in 1978, got a "Fat Mac" 512k in 1985. The personal computer revolution was supposed to free the individual from the big corporate data center.

Now we have come full circle, with Apple operating the world's biggest data centers and doing everything they can to make us more and more dependent on them. Tim Cook turned out to be the face on the screen in the 1984 ad, and there's nobody to throw a sledge hammer through it.

No idea where you got your data from, but Apple most certainly does not have the world's largest data centres ... Not by a long shot. They aren't even in the Top 10.

I understand the desire to make a point, but the use of hyperbole is not the best way to do it, IMO.

http://www.cbronline.com/news/data-...st-data-centres-from-around-the-world-4545356

 

[Jumpthrough]

Even if they are denying the entire rumor, every rumor has at least an ounce of truth to it. It will be interesting and very sad (for me) to see what happens with this.

 

[daniel1948]

... every rumor has at least an ounce of truth to it. ...

Every rumor? No, I don't think so. Plenty of rumors are total b.s. (Though I don't pretend to know if this one has any truth to it.)

Bottom line is, it really doesn't matter: There are plenty of other places to buy music. Frankly, I don't like iTunes. I've bought a few albums and tracks through it, mainly because I was in the habit of getting my podcasts through iTunes, going back to before I knew any other way. Now that I'm getting my podcasts through a non-Apple app, I almost never even have iTunes running. I'll probably go to Amazon the next time I buy a music download (something I don't do often anyway.)

 

[0098386]

Oh go ahead and do it, Apple. Give me a reason to break away from the Apple ecosystem....

I'm in the same boat. Worsening QA, lack of hardware innovation, potential removal of wired headphones. I wish it didn't have to be this way.

 

[hans1972]

It's 256kbps, which is a far cry from lossless (as is 320), let alone HQ audio. Loss of music has happened, in the iTunes store specifically - I have a handful of tracks that are no longer available from there (or any other download site).

You're unusual in having wifi everywhere. Most companies won't allow streaming audio through their network (assuming they allow BYOD devices to connect at all). Airplanes don't allow it, and outside of major cities, even the cellular networks are too slow./QUOTE]

Most people do not care about sound quality. Most people listen to their music on louse headphones or cheap loudspeakers at home.

Here is the thing: If you do not have access to Wifi you have the songs stored offline on your device. Some of the streaming services has a limit on the number of songs, but I do believe Apple Music lets you store at least 10 000 songs offline on your device. That is enough for me, since I do no need anymore for a particular short period.

[doublepost=1463225603][/doublepost]

News for Urbanites: Streaming doesn't work everywhere. There are still billions of people who live in areas where there is no streaming. I live in the third world country of Vermont (located within the USA). Streaming is not an option for most of Vermont. Cell service is non-existant in many rural locations where half the country still lives and even more people in other countries.

Offline use. You do not have to use cellular services at all with Apple Music, Spotify and similar services.
With streaming services you have the following options:
1) Stream music through cellular networks
2) Stream music though networks through broadband
3) Play music stored on your device (no network access at all needed)
[doublepost=1463225840][/doublepost]

Given that Apple is denying this story I'm not going to complain too much, but I get sent on business trips to places that don't quite rise to Middle of Nowhere status. If I'm there for weeks streaming usually isn't reliable or cheap. I currently store as many songs on my phone for that reason.

Lets say you are sent away for 8 weeks, and you want to listen to music constantly for 16 hours a day, just make 10 000 to 15 000 songs available offline and you are all set.

 

[smorrissey]

Its gonna happen anyways sooner or later...the iTunes plus format is old enough time to move to lossless or streaming lossless in the near future (before 2020).

 

[mildmannered]

Used CDs will be around for a long time, and those cost less.

Is why they stopped fitting CD drives a few years ago? How very forward thinking

So the simplest method for most will be to stream Apple music to their Beats headphone using the lightning connector.

They may have dismissed the rumour, but it had to have started from somewhere?

 

[Michael Goff]

Is why they stopped fitting CD drives a few years ago? How very forward thinking

So the simplest method for most will be to stream Apple music to their Beats headphone using the lightning connector.

They may have dismissed the rumour, but it had to have started from somewhere?

Some rumors just seem to come out of nowhere. Just take a look at the recent iPhone 7 rumors. It might or might not have a smart connector, two lenses, a headphone jack, and so forth. Rumors are easy to make these days. It could have been as simple as somebody asking "what if we stopped selling music and moved more people to the subscription service" overheard by somebody who then became a source.

Or there could be no source at all.

 

[daniel1948]

Yep! Every rumor has a starting point, but sometimes that starting point is a certain portion of someone's anatomy.

 

[matthewhuk]

Another reason Apple won't be getting their hands on my money.

 

[decafjava]

Another reason Apple won't be getting their hands on my money.

You reopened a year and a half old thread to react to a rumour that isn't even true???