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Apple May Be Planning to Break Up iTunes With New Music and Podcast Apps for Mac

dumastudetto said:
Nobody uses iTunes anymore, so this is good news.
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Whether it is separated or discontinued, this does not matter to you anyway. So good news anyway.
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castor said:
I use iTunes to sort/arrange my 150+ apps on my phone as my needs change. iTunes was not good for it, but still loads better than long-hold, drag, miss, swear, repeat. I also use iTunes to load non-cloud content to pdf, book and cartoon readers, as well as movie players. So my mac is stuck on High Sierra & iTunes 12.6.5.3
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Me too. Seeking for options to block upgrading to Mojave locally.
[doublepost=1554619934][/doublepost]And for all subscription lovers out there, good luck finding out songs being pulled from service because of licensing issue. One day the song you love on your Apple Music will be pulled and you can do absolutely nothing.
 
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Rogifan said:
So how then do you add music to iCloud music library? Or video to the TV app? The only way to do this now is via iTunes. If Apple gives us a way to do it directly from our iOS devices, great. I doubt they will though because iOS doesn’t have a visible file system and every app is sandboxed.
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The number of people that handles their own mp3 library is getting smaller and smaller. The number of people that subscribes to Spotify or Music is getting bigger and bigger.

This is even more true for video.

Get on board, it’s not 1995 anymore.
 
iTunes should be a standalone music player like it was before, back then it was the gold standard and worked like a charm.
It still works but there's just too much in it for my usage.
 
adamw said:
Sounds interesting. Is Apple positioning itself to split off iTunes into various apps to help defend itself against legal claims for "Apple Tax" and Spotify's claims of Apple being a monopoly?
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Ding ding ding.
 
I use iTunes for Syncing all my content, and back ups. I don’t use iCloud. I just hope, if they plan to split it up, that I can still sync okay and don’t have to choose between music, audiobooks, video and pictures.
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johannnn said:
The number of people that handles their own mp3 library is getting smaller and smaller. The number of people that subscribes to Spotify or Music is getting bigger and bigger.

This is even more true for video.

Get on board, it’s not 1995 anymore.
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No thanks. I don’t want to stream anything!
 
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johannnn said:
The number of people that handles their own mp3 library is getting smaller and smaller. The number of people that subscribes to Spotify or Music is getting bigger and bigger.

This is even more true for video.

Get on board, it’s not 1995 anymore.
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What you say may be true; but I don't understand why you feel it's a good thing. What you're are saying is:

Nobody owns anything anymore and everyone rents things now and if that service goes away you own F-all.

Is that a future you want?
 
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I never had issues with iTunes until the most resent UI change that practically hides the icon for a connected iPhone.

And puts that stupid drop down for switching between movies and music.

I hardly use the Mac for music related things so this would be good.
 
johannnn said:
The number of people that handles their own mp3 library is getting smaller and smaller. The number of people that subscribes to Spotify or Music is getting bigger and bigger.

This is even more true for video.

Get on board, it’s not 1995 anymore.
Click to expand...

People who have been buying digital music for 30 years or more may not be interested in renting back what they already own.
 
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WatchFromAfar said:
What you say may be true; but I don't understand why you feel it's a good thing. What you're are saying is:

Nobody owns anything anymore and everyone rents things now and if that service goes away you own F-all.

Is that a future you want?
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Well, what about having new songs/movies that no longer hold the punch and actually carry meaningful things like the old ones anymore? Instead of buying those low quality music or movie, people listen to it once and throw it away, forgetting about it forever? If this is the trend, renting instead of owning can actually save you a leg and an arm in the long run.
 
Shirasaki said:
Well, what about having new songs/movies that no longer hold the punch and actually carry meaningful things like the old ones anymore? Instead of buying those low quality music or movie, people listen to it once and throw it away, forgetting about it forever? If this is the trend, renting instead of owning can actually save you a leg and an arm in the long run.
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So because you don't have to own the low quality things that out ways owning the high quality things?

Also what proof does anyone have that the only thing on offer for you to rent won’t be "songs/movies that no longer hold the punch"
 
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Under Cook, I would not expect any improvements in the design and usability of newly architected Apps. There is nobody driving that bus that understands the users (except how to use marketing to separate them from their money.)
 
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WatchFromAfar said:
So because you don't have to own the low quality things that out ways owning the high quality things?

Also what proof does anyone have that the only thing on offer for you to rent won’t be "songs/movies that no longer hold the punch"
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I think @Shirasaki is pointing out on of the positives of streaming - if I’m readying it correctly.

I subscribe to  Music and have discovered a few new artists I like, but I listen to my own stuff 85% of the time. I like having access to a massive catalog that I can listen to full previews and see if I like it - if I do I usually buy it immediately, I have very few items “saved” to my iCloud music library.

Streaming can save the masses a bit of money who just want to constantly listen to new music as background noise and then move on so it has its merits.

I’ve just seen Apple - which used to cater to the masses but also have niche options for the smaller but powerful customer based - moving toward a trend of axing more and more products and features and creating a very limited “sit back and let us do this” approach that is great for the mass market, but leave little or no options for the niche group of loyal followers.

  • Look at the death of Aperture.
  • Look at the current version of the MacBook Pro.
  • Look at Pages which became seamless for basic edits across devices that 90% of people would use, but dropped support for advanced features and layout tools that some people had built entire workflows on.
——

@johannnn Sorry for the rant (and it’s not aimed at you), but I see posts here, and on Reddit, and on other forums of people blankly claiming “the death of iTunes is overdue - its not 2001. Streamed libraries are the future. Move on.”

Those statements annoy me so much. I do subscribe to streaming services, but I take great pleasure amassing my own curated library of music with carefully crafted playlists and meta data. Much if it isn’t on streaming services. I’m not a “hipster”, I just have a hobby.

People who have different interests (including at times Apple) can be so dismissive of other groups. It’s like telling photography enthusiasts that they need to stop paying for Adobe and buying $1000 cameras with $300+ lens because that’s so 2005 now that we have smartphones with machine learning and cloud storage. Or gamers need to stop building PCs because that’s so 2010. We have Google Stadia and Apple Arcade now.
 
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diggy33 said:
Give me a stripped down iTunes focused on music, and a refresh of the iPod Classic (no touchscreen, no apps - just music) and I'd be a happy camper. One can dream, cant he?
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Sadly the evolution of the click wheel is the touch screen. There are a lot of audio companies putting out high quality portable music players. It sucks that Apple won’t dabble in these areas that don’t generate as much profit
 
I hope we don’t lose any functionality, dividing itunes is one thing but I’d rather be stuck with itunes than to lose functionality as a result.

If we lose local backups then I basically lose one of the two big reasons I use ios devices (the other update support).

I still miss itunes 11, it just worked for what I wanted.
 
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I’ll feel a little sad when they split iTunes up. I like how everything is in one place. I don’t understand the hate towards iTunes to be honest.

iTunes was part of my first experience with Apple products. I didn’t even care for iPods when they were popular, I just got one for Christmas one year. It was my brother that wanted one, but I got one too anyway. I ended up using it more than he used his.

The simplicity of syncing music from
iTunes to iPod got to me. Also the sound of the music in your ears from your own personal player that looked great. I loved the idea of organising a library. All of this together made me understand why people paid more for the Apple experience. It’s the same for why people buy AirPods today.

It’s not all about the specs or which products have the most features, it’s the overall experience of using Apple stuff that makes them worth the money. Sadly, a lot still don’t get it.

I will be a bit sad when they split up the app, but I understand why.
 
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alexhardaker said:
I’ll feel a little sad when they split iTunes up. I like how everything is in one place. I don’t understand the hate towards iTunes to be honest.

iTunes was part of my first experience with Apple products. I didn’t even care for iPods when they were popular, I just got one for Christmas one year. It was my brother that wanted one, but I got one too anyway. I ended up using it more than he used his.

The simplicity of syncing music from
iTunes to iPod got to me. Also the sound of the music in your ears from your own personal player that looked great. I loved the idea of organising a library. All of this together made me understand why people paid more for the Apple experience. It’s the same for why people buy AirPods today.

It’s not all about the specs or which products have the most features, it’s the overall experience of using Apple stuff that makes them worth the money. Sadly, a lot still don’t get it.

I will be a bit sad when they split up the app, but I understand why.
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Just About My exact experience but i was on a windows pc and my hard drive crashed with music match as my music software. Then i found iTunes and was hooked on the "apple" experience. If iTunes goes i'm most likely gone from apple for good. iTunes was the reason i eventually paid the price for a MacBook pro and iPhone, no other reason.
 
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iObama said:
I'm equal parts nervous and excited.

[actually just mostly nervous]

iTunes is a bastard, but it's my bastard, ya know?
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There is a pretty high risk these apps will be limited in their functionality. With enough bad luck I won’t be able to play back local content in the new music player. That will be a dealbreaker for me.

I hope Apple manages to balance their interest in promoting own services with the interest in selling computers.
 
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