iTunes Expected to Be Retired After Over 18 Years

[Eorlas]

I love iTunes on my Mac. If they replace it with something else, it better be insanely great.

I too enjoy it. I'm actually a bit bothered that they got rid of iPhone app management from their latest builds, as being able to sort the home screen with a mouse is a lot more efficient than on the device itself.

Calling it bloated because it has Music, TV, and Podcasts just to then separate it into other apps is silly, IMO. Then you just have more applications.

The Music app had better come with a dark mode, and proper device management. Or just launch a separate device manager.

 

[bpeeps]

What would happen to the purchases you made on iTunes?

Those purchases will likely be transferred to the corresponding apps once you sign in. Or it'll be a big lesson in why you don't purchase digital files.

 

[partsofspeech]

Whatever comes better not disable iTunes or destroy my playlists that have been years in the making!

Siri will determine what our playlists should be, sooner or later. And it’s for making the world a better place.

 

[rowspaxe]

I think I'd like to have one app that does all three rather than three separate apps.

It doesn't really solve the problem. How itunes toggles to each 'store' is a disaster

 

[Greymacuser]

So rather than have everything managed in one application where I can see everything all at once, Kook is going to split that up into multiple applications that need to be opened in separate windows and take up more processor time and desktop space?
Is he intent on undoing everything Apple was when it was good?

 

[chooyoshi]

Now if only they could simplify file transfers to iOS by allowing mass storage drag and drop!

And this is why I am using android for my smartphones while using mac os

 

[Rogifan]

Uh, iCloud Music Library is part of the Music app, just like it is on iOS. This isn't surprising anyone, or even up for debate.

Devices also still appear in the sidebar of the Music app. For what purpose remains to be seen. Local backups will still be a thing, but syncing is definitely on the chopping block. Local syncing of media from desktop to mobile is about as archaic as any feature still in use across the platform. If local syncing still exists, it will likely be greatly simplified and a lot of logical/automatic syncing features that existed from day one of iPod will be gone.

I currently use Infuse as my video player. I can sync videos to my iPad without having to connect it to my PC via USB. If Apple enables that I’m all for it.

 

[JetTester]

Too bad. It isn't perfect, but it works. Now we'll have multiple apps to do the same job. Another minimalist design from the one track mind of Jony Ive? Hey Jony, if you take away all functionality, you will finally achieve perfection - it won't do anything, but boy it'll have a simple UI!

 

[DNichter]

Makes sense, not much use for it today. Syncing can be handled through system preferences if people still need it.

 

[AaronChamberlain]

Very interesting. I wonder what happens to Windows users. I moved off of iTunes about a year ago to manage everything through my Plex server and don't regret anything, minus iOS still thinks the only source of music is "Music", so I can't use autoplay gestures/buttons on bluetooth headsets.

 

[Rogifan]

I wonder what this means for the iTunes Music Store. The leaked screenshots of Apple Music for Mac didn’t show a music store. Will there be another app for the store like on iOS?

Ideally, perhaps it can be merged with Apple Music. If you don’t have a subscription, individual songs and albums would show a Buy button instead. But given Apple’s push into streaming and its battle to dethrone Spotify, I would be surprised to see Apple openly promoting iTunes as an option.

I’ve never understood why you couldn’t buy music via the music app. Wouldn’t the record labels want that? I mean if there’s something I really like I’m more likely to want to own it than rent it. But having to go to a separate app to buy is just an extra step that people probably wouldn’t be bothered to do.

 

[partsofspeech]

Not surprised since reading the leak about the Music and TV apps last week.

That said, if they dumb the apps down the way they did with iBooks, that'll be just one more reason to ditch the Mac ecosystem. Sad, but true.

I am happy someone shares same sentiment about iBook dumb down, but sadly, the company will continue to strip away user self-organizing features from apps.
[doublepost=1559318174][/doublepost]

This is horrible news! iTunes backs up my devices and been a iTunes Match subscriber since the beginning. All good comes to an end; it appears that Apple is forcing an all or nothing approach to subscription. Days of ownership is coming to an end...

Digital communism

 

[trifid]

Never understood this critique. What's horrible about its design, in your opinion?

Apple has been trying to hide things all over the UI in an effort to make it minimalist and "simple" throughout the years, however this ended up being counter-intuitive and horrendous UX all over the place. One thing I hate with passion is how they handle the sidebar, depending if you are in "library" or not the sidebar shows up or goes away.

I need a persistent consistent sidebar all the time, it has my playlists, my music, don't hide it. If I'm in Apple Music and I want to drag and drop a song into one of my playlists quickly to add it, I can't, the sidebar is gone, heck, right-click doesn't even work! you need to hover with your mouse and find the "..." (this is another example of hiding things to be minimalist but then making it unintuitive or cumbersome), then click find the add to playlist menu, then scroll down list. 3 actions. If the sidebar were present, it'd be drag-and-drop, 1 action.

There are many other things to discuss but Apple has been dropping the ball on design lately, on a similar note, I don't know if you remember the first Apple Music app that came out, it was universally criticized for bad design, and has slowly been recovering from that, but still it hasn't been winning any design awards.

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8gz7hy/the_apple_music_app_is_horribly_designed/

 

[bpeeps]

So what app will I use to manage my iPhone and local encrypted backups? Third party? iMazing is pretty good, except costly.

Did you even read the article or just the headline? The Apple Music app.

 

[Mr Todhunter]

You can pry my dynamically-updating Smart Playlists from my cold dead hands.
I shall be keeping the current version of iTunes on my Mac and not upgrading.

Me too. Even if that requires never updating the OS. I’ll be staying with Mojave and iTunes 12.6.5

 

[tethead]

does this mean we'll get Soundjam released again?

APPUL PLSZ

 

[JessWinter]

Lol everyone ***** on iTunes but half of these comments are just people complaining about it going away wtfff hahaha

 

[jonblatho]

Especially on iPhone, it's so annoying trying to tap the correct letter on the right hand side to jump down the list.

Why not use your finger to scrub up and down until you get the correct letter like...probably everyone else? It would probably save time compared to lining your finger up to tap the intended letter.

 

[djcode24]

This would now mean that DJ's like myself that rely on itunes integration for music management and playback will be in hot water now. Goodbye Traktor, Serato, Virtual DJ integration now...

 

[Deliro]

Itunes, especially the earlier iterations was one of the worst designed customer experiences of any major software.

 

[iRutherford]

They should create a fourth app called Devices which allows syncing, file transfer, backup and the like.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

I expect it's being killed off.
Everyone else has already exited that business with the exception of Google. And Google themselves are transitioning away from matching cloud music with their new YouTube Music service.

Not everyone accepts what labels allow to be streamed, and even Apple Music doesn't have everything. So iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud is still very much needed.

 

[CleverClock]

Good

 

[Starflyer]

Now I'm intrigued on what will be the substitute for backing up for those who don't use iCloud.

...

will be replaced by the new Music app, which is expected to become the new utility for syncing and managing Apple devices.​

 

[leeds utd fc]

Will do. Asking around if anyone uses a fax or rides a horse and carriage.

I work for an IP Law firm, we still have fax. Not used very often, but firms in some countries still like fax!