Apple Wipes iTunes Pages on Facebook and Instagram, Begins Moving Away From iTunes Links

[iAVERY]

Avast poor iTunes we knew you well.

RIP.

 

[oldmacs]

I'm with you on your last paragraph there. I was in the Apple store a week ago, and you could see the utter confusion at the iPad section. I watched the employees trying to explain differences between the iPad models. I don't understand them myself, and I'm a lifelong Apple fan. Such crazy confusing product lines.

They need to drop the iPad Air's price to match the iPad 6th gen, then drop the 'air' branding and do away with the 6th gen. Then you'd have iPad Mini, iPad and iPad Pro.

 

[SeattleMoose]

So are they going to have a new way to backup data from the iPhone/iPad to the Mac?
iTunes has always provided that functionality for music/movies/etc. And if iTunes is gone....

 

[w5jck]

I can’t believe so many people here are upset about breaking up iTunes into multiple apps. The name iTunes implies it is MUSIC related, so why the heck did they make it the server for music plus video/movies, books, photos, etc.? That NEVER bleeping made sense! And on top of that, they use it to backup iOS devices. The only thing it should ever have had was music. It is way past due to get separate Music, Movie, Books, iOS Backup, TV Streaming, Podcast apps, etc. They are already screwing up though as the TV app seems to include movies and stuff other than streaming TV. The Apple development heads must have poop for brains when it comes to taking simple concepts and turning them into super confusing apps. Would you intuitively go to a music store to buy pizza? If Apple sold pizza they might try to make you do that.

Oh, and iTunes has been a PITA to use and a bloated pile of poop for years. A buggy pile of poop. Put that garbage in the digital dumpster!

 

[RudySnow]

So pay more money basically for something that works perfectly fine as it is? If Apple offered match for free I might use it, as long as my custom album art, metadata eg all carried across. Along with 'number of plays', 'last plays' etc. Basically if it fully synced all the information that iTunes sync does now then I'd do it. Also if it still worked with Last.fm.

iTunes sync is just so simple and easy to do what I want and with Wifi Sync turned on, it happens automatically without me needing to do anything whatsoever.

Well, no one is forcing anyone to upgrade to 10.15, so if iTunes still works for you, stay on 10.14 and carry on.I personally haven’t touched iTunes in five years and am satisfied without it.

 

[harriska2]

Nice explanation, thanks. Seems you're much more into the app than me and thus encounter more problems. I just use it to listen to music and sync and I don't watch movies through iTunes, I use VLC. My music library is just around 30gb, so I'm guessing it's getting more confused as its size increases.

About your covers problem, but have you tried (you probably have) disabling the automatic cover download function? For all my music, I added the covers manually and they have always stayed put.

About needing all of your files, I get it. But our approach is different, I keep everything on a external drive and when needed, I copy a few videos to the Mac and watch them with VLC, kinda a Windows approach, not having everything in one nice place with cover art etc. I never bothered importing everything into iTunes and that might have been a good thing...

I tried VLC on macos 10.14 and it was messy to interface the software and transfer music files into the vlc library and then onto an ios device. Do you use it for a local music library and to choose certain songs/albums to sync with certain ios devices? Because I can’t find anything that works half as well as itunes...

 

[Techwatcher]

Yeah take something that has had massive brand recognition and just tank it and start over... how about that Mac Pro Tim...

iTunes was and is garbage. It was good when it first came out because there was nothing like it. Many of us on here have been waiting for this day for it to be shelved.

 

[warp9]

 

[oldmacs]

Well, no one is forcing anyone to upgrade to 10.15, so if iTunes still works for you, stay on 10.14 and carry on.I personally haven’t touched iTunes in five years and am satisfied without it.

Given Apple's fairly rubbish support of older versions of MacOS security wise, that only really gives me two years.

Then theres the slight issue where Apple likes to tie updates of iWork (for example) to MacOS versions and iOS versions. I update to the latest iOS when it comes out because Apple gives ZERO support to older versions of iOS, meaning that to keep my devices in sync and working (for example in iWork) this requires updating the Mac as well.

The fact is, that the cloud doesn't offer a syncing service that replicates what iTunes does currently.
[doublepost=1559444578][/doublepost]

I can’t believe so many people here are upset about breaking up iTunes into multiple apps. The name iTunes implies it is MUSIC related, so why the heck did they make it the server for music plus video/movies, books, photos, etc.? That NEVER bleeping made sense! And on top of that, they use it to backup iOS devices. The only thing it should ever have had was music. It is way past due to get separate Music, Movie, Books, iOS Backup, TV Streaming, Podcast apps, etc. They are already screwing up though as the TV app seems to include movies and stuff other than streaming TV. The Apple development heads must have poop for brains when it comes to taking simple concepts and turning them into super confusing apps. Would you intuitively go to a music store to buy pizza? If Apple sold pizza they might try to make you do that.

It made sense as iTunes became the hub to move content onto iPods and then iPhones and iPads. Personally one application that handles syncing that is integrated with the media libraries it is syncing makes sense than having to sync content from multiple different Apps. Syncing one new movie to a device by dragging it onto said device makes more sense to me than the method of going into the device, and having to scroll through unfamiliar menus to find content and then tick it to sync it over.

Also, made sense in the iTunes Store, if you were searching for a movie (for example), that you'd also get the soundtrack listed under, and then maybe a podcast related to it.

 

[Porco]

I’m going to be interested to see how I’ll make a playlist with a mixture of podcasts, audiobooks and music tracks in this wonderful new world of separate apps. Will it be:

1) Possible, but requires a round trip through 3 different apps, which would be very stupid.
2) Simply impossible, because Apple doesn’t care.
3) Podcasts and/or audiobooks still available to organise in new ‘Music’ app in a more streamlined manner somehow (maybe optionally turned on linking to the other apps).

My bet is on it being a huge number 2, (so to speak) but I hope I’m wrong.

 

[audiophilosophy]

I'll NEVER subscribe to Apple Music, and I've spent hundreds of dollars in the iTunes store (and planned to continue to). I lack the confidence in Tim Cook to think he'd have something acceptable to migrate the folks like me who were happy with what they had already sans Apple Music subscription to. I guess I'll find out on Monday. This might be the last straw that will make me go back to windows after being a Mac user for 13 years. Tim Cook is a terrible CEO.

 

[ProVideo]

RIP SoundJam MP.

 

[retta283]

So instead of trying to fix the messy app that is iTunes, they decide to break it into multiple apps using an iOS fat-font white paste design? This is stupid. I can imagine the ability to create new versions of files is going away, so I will never use the new apps. I can imagine ripping CDs will be gone too. How will we sync with iOS devices? Should've kept iSync around. This whole breakup of iTunes is pointless and kills an instantly recognizable icon for Apple.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

This could really seriously suck, as the danged iBook Store app is a hot mess of not working well.

On macOS, it takes me multiple tries to get everything to update, and on even my newest iPad, the damned app flails around trying to do just the basic of stuff. It's practically useless. I get so pissed trying to get update, and find content. So am I to expect that level of 'service' from the split apart apps? If so, I'm outta here. I have more important things to do that play with apps that fail at doing their basic intended purpose.

What was it that jobs said about MobileMe? Yeah, that on the iBook Store app for sure.
[doublepost=1559446982][/doublepost]

So instead of trying to fix the messy app that is iTunes, they decide to break it into multiple apps using an iOS fat-font white paste design? This is stupid. I can imagine the ability to create new versions of files is going away, so I will never use the new apps. I can imagine ripping CDs will be gone too. How will we sync with iOS devices? Should've kept iSync around. This whole breakup of iTunes is pointless and kills an instantly recognizable icon for Apple.

'Separate but equal' has NEVER worked. I HATE the new old iBook Store app. It's a mess, and doesn't work worth a dam. Even on my new iPad, it still has issues updating, and finding my content. GRR...
[doublepost=1559447142][/doublepost]

Actually the death of Apple started quite a while ago. I hear there are 11 versions of the new 2019 iPhones planned? Great idea... Shoot yourself in the face... They almost died doing that crap decades ago. Sad...

iTunes pisses off droid followers. Most of that is probably jealously. *shrug*

 

[TheSkywalker77]

He would've killed it earlier.

Steve had no problem killing the iPod mini, then Apple's best selling device, and creating the iPod nano. He effectively killed the entire iPod market with the release of the iPhone. Steve had no attachment to brands if he could create a better one.

You do make a good point there.

 

[Tech198]

Never seen anything like it (...and probably never will again)

A complete cleanup of Facebook.

 

[truthertech]

But why? I get that Music, Books, and Podcasts are replacing the iTunes app, but the store will still exist. There's still a place for those accounts. And based on leaked iOS 13 screenshots, we'll still have the iTunes Store on iPhone.

Not likely. You'll most likely purchase things via the individual new apps, e.g., Bookes, Apple Music and Apple TV.
[doublepost=1559448207][/doublepost]

Is it just me, or does this seem like it’s going to hurt them more than anything?


I can figure it out and understand this (just like everyone else on here...) but your standard user is and will be confused. I have seen a lot of confused social media posts from people who think they’re going to lose everything... music, gift cards, etc... at a time when services are what Apple is banking off, they sure are digging themselves a hole.

It's just you.

Segmenting iTunes into its separate components will bring even more billions of dollars in revenue. Apple had no choice as their near billion customers have a voracious appetite for Apple services and this is only going to explode with Apple TV, Arcade, etc. The money machine needed more spouts and here they are! #Winning

 

[Superhai]

It does NOT work perfectly for music.

Every single time I fire up iTunes and go to music, I end up spending an hour or so replacing album covers.

Never had this issue, but then again I remove the option from iTunes to look up online for metadata and cover art.

It also seems to have issues with the size of the album covers and whether or not it is a jpg or a png.

It works fine for me, but I try to convert to jpeg to avoid the iOS limit on cover art size. I think it is a bit stupid that they don’t support HEIF format.

Sometimes however it stops loading the artwork if the network connection is slow (I keep my iTunes library on a NAS connected over WiFi)

At one point, I had to spoof a UK iTunes account to grab album covers off the UK version of the iTunes store.

I use third party sources for cover art, because Apples own usually sucks if it is not of the newest popular albums. A new app will however not solve this issue.

The less said about how iTunes handles Classical Music, the better.

I agree, but it is much better than most options. They have done improvements over the last few versions if you do the metadata yourself. I hope they keep improving in the future.

Oh, and then there is the charming bug that deletes what it thinks is duplicate movies that aren't duplicates - they are remakes, and there is no way short of hand-jamming the information into iTunes to keep that from happening.

I never had this issue, but rather that I have ended up with the same video file twice. And from Apple TV I could not get why it would not mark the movie as seen even after I had finished watching it.

Do you run iTunes on Windows? I feel we are talking about two different pieces of software here.

 

[truthertech]

It does NOT work perfectly for music.

Every single time I fire up iTunes and go to music, I end up spending an hour or so replacing album covers. iTunes looks to the Apple store for that, and if an album has been pulled from the store, there goes your album covers and metadata - because they don't keep the metadata there, even if they did sell it in the past. We aren't talking obscure albums, we are talking million selling albums, or in the case of Rumors by Fleetwood Mac (20+ million in the US alone). One day, I got to replace all of my Fleetwood Mac album covers, another day I had to go and replace the Kiss covers, and on and on (and on)....

It also seems to have issues with the size of the album covers and whether or not it is a jpg or a png.

And there is yet another issue when the album covers won't show up. They are there if you go into the info, but they don't show up in the app, until you go to song view, and then switch back to album view.

And Cthulhu forbid that you have music that isn't sold in the US. At one point, I had to spoof a UK iTunes account to grab album covers off the UK version of the iTunes store.

The less said about how iTunes handles Classical Music, the better.

Oh, and then there is the charming bug that deletes what it thinks is duplicate movies that aren't duplicates - they are remakes, and there is no way short of hand-jamming the information into iTunes to keep that from happening.

If they would just fix the #!&^## bugs, it would be fine.

I have a 6+TB iTunes library (50,000+ songs, 1,700 movies, and 1,000+ tv shows) and I dread moving to something else.

Oh, and to head off the inevitable questions.....

Yes - I need all of it. P.T. Barnum sold Apple users in the 10.2 era to Make your computer the hub of your digital lifestyle. Some of us went all in on that because at the time, iTunes was the best thing going.

No - I am not putting anything on the cloud - the cloud is a solution in search of a problem. I don't have to worry about any content disappearing because a studio pulled a movie from Apple. And the less said about internet access in JebbusLand, the better.

Re: Deleted duplicate movies (or, there is nothing new under the sun...) - A significant portion of movies made today are remakes of earlier movies. Why have both? Watch The Crown Thomas Affair with Steve McQueen and Fay Dunaway and then the remake with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. Or that The Hustle is a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which was a remake of School for Scoundrels?

Sorry, you are the ultimate edge case. 99.9999% of people just want to click on their music, or for the smarter ones, just tell Siri what you want, she works beautifully with music. No offense, but Apple can't spend time or effort trying to design an ecosystem and store around what each individual tech nerd might do with their music.

 

[duervo]

WWDC 2034 Keynote Intro Summary:

"We here at Apple have got some incredible technology to show you today. We took what you all love about Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Books, and combined them all into one, incredibly glorious app ... Apple Media."

Audience: <3 <3 uwu <3 <3

Macrumors Forum Members: Finally! It's about time they got rid of those 3 bloated, convoluted apps. What a horrible experience it's been. They were perfect when it launched back in 2019, but over the past 15 years it's just gotten worse and worse.

 

[blueflower]

Tim Cook is to Apple.......Steve Balmer was to Microsoft

'nuff said

 

[RudySnow]

Never seen anything like it (...and probably never will again)

A complete cleanup of Facebook.

That starts in their boardroom.

 

[stiligFox]

Never had this issue, but then again I remove the option from iTunes to look up online for metadata and cover art.

How did you do this? I never tell iTunes on my Mac to search for album art and I always provide it manually when ripping CDs, but somewhere along the way iTunes decided to check anyway.

And it’s turned my library into an unholy mess. It’s so bad I’m going to just rip my some 200 CDs from scratch in the future. Most of my albums not only have completely wrong artwork now, but each track within an album will have its own artwork, meaning each album has 2-4 different artworks that change as I’m listening to them on my iPods.

 

[fel10]

It’s the end of an era

 

[richpjr]

The king is dead. Long live the king!

 

[sully54]

What does this mean for the iTunes Music Store?

Because really, Apple Music and the Music Store should be integrated. Music should be smart enough to show a song/album as available for streaming or purchasing depending on whether the user has an Apple Music subscription or not.