I was thinking about my old polycarbonate MacBook from years back and how much I loved it. I then remembered how I used to be in a public space and when I’d hop onto iTunes, you could see other people using a Mac and you could listen to their listed music in their library. You couldn’t download it, but you could listen to it while they were there. A very cool feature! Why did Apple get rid of that? There was something cool about finding new music and also the air of mystery that it’s someone nearby you but you have no idea who it is.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Why did Apple remove iTunes library sharing long time ago?
- Thread starter delsoul
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Your iTunes library is not gone, but your purchased music should be available inside the Music app. Apple Music is a subscription service, but Music app doesn’t require a subscription.
Thank you, but what I’m talking about is a feature that allowed iTunes users on their laptops to publicly share their music with others connected to the same WiFi network. For example, I’d have iTunes opened and it would show me something that says, “Sophytaylor6’s Music”, any music playlists you made public on there could be accessed by me and others to listen to. Once you left the WiFi network, the music is gone and we couldn’t listen to what you had any longer. It was an awesome feature and it disappointed me that Apple got rid of it. I’m just trying to figure out why they axed it
Likely licensing issues. You were sharing your music with everyone on your LAN. In large work spaces, that means sharing your music freely with a *lot* of people.
It was quite nice when I worked at universities. Loads of free music to listen to, new stuff to experience.
It was quite nice when I worked at universities. Loads of free music to listen to, new stuff to experience.
Are you sure it's not working anymore?
Apple Support - Share iTunes libraries on a local PC network https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/itunes/itns3018/windows
Apple Support - Share iTunes libraries on a local PC network https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/itunes/itns3018/windows
No this is exactly it. Apple merely moved the sharing from the iTunes settings to the macOS system settings and added sharing of other media like videos (and maybe ebooks?) as they introduced their tv app, and I think podcasts too with the podcast app.
Even the tech behind it with Apple's Bonjour is identical. I have been an Apple user for a long time just like you and I did use that same feature myself back in the day (nowadays with streaming I have no need for the crappy music app anymore). It was never turned on by default though and still isn't so unless you find someone with a Mac who has that turned on intentionally you will never see other libraries pop up in public.
The chances of that happening in 2025 are very low because most people use phone hotspot wireless and Spotify. The current music app on macOS is iTunes leftovers so even people who want to manage their music locally are unlikely to still use this.
I was going to mention something along these lines - the days of owning media and playing it locally is long gone; it's all about streaming and the cloud. Hence why features like this, which highlight playing media locally, is deprecated or hidden behind some obscure setting in media apps.
Last edited:
That WAS fun, in many settings.
I'm betting Apple Music licensing forced them to stop sharing.
Why have an option to share for free when you can charge a music streaming service for the family and get money instead?
could've been a vector for security issues too...IMHO...
Music in Tahoe streaming from iTunes 12.13.7.1 on Windows 11, both connected to the same network.
Share songs from a shared media library in Music on Mac
https://support.apple.com/guide/music/from-a-shared-library-muscadf6038/mac
"To require users to enter a password before your shared items appear, select Require Password, then enter a password."
Share songs from a shared media library in Music on Mac
https://support.apple.com/guide/music/from-a-shared-library-muscadf6038/mac
"To require users to enter a password before your shared items appear, select Require Password, then enter a password."
There was actually a single version of iTunes that let you share your library (streaming) over the internet, but it got abused so was yanked pretty quickly.
But the local network sharing remained, and was popular in college dorms etc.
Here's an article I wrote about it at the time...
IT’S the Apple software update you won’t want to install.
No sooner had users begun to discover the coolest but little-known feature in Apple’s new iTunes 4 jukebox software, than the company yanked the function in an update.
iTunes 4 had the ability to stream songs to other Macs via the Internet. By entering another user’s IP address in the "Connect to shared music" dialogue box, one could view another’s music library and playlists, and stream — not download — their songs.
Naturally this worked best if both users had a broadband connection.
However, a minority of users chose to abuse this privilege, hacking the function to allow the actual downloading of songs from other users’ Macs, in the same style as peer-to-peer file-sharing services like Gnutella and KaZaa.
Some websites posted libraries from which visitors could download songs.
Soon the American media was all over it, linking piracy to Apple’s supposedly anti-piracy iTunes Music Store This panicked record companies, which had done a deal with Apple to sell their music via the online store.
Apple responded this week by crippling the streaming function in an update, iTunes 4.0.1.
While Internet sharing is gone, users will still be able to stream their music on a home or local-area network.
User reaction to the iTunes ‘‘downgrade’’ has been predictably fierce, with many complaining that honest users shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a minority. Others can see Apple’s side, however, and reason that they don’t use Internet file sharing that much anyway.
So what to do if you want to continue Internet music sharing with friends? The obvious solution is not to upgrade to iTunes 4.0.1. However iTunes 4 won’t share with 4.0.1, so you’ll have to ensure your friends don’t upgrade either if you intend music-sharing with them. And if you don’t upgrade you’ll miss out on other improvements like
‘‘performance and network enhancements’’, along with future features.
Another solution is to keep two copies of iTunes on your Mac: version 4.0.1 for day-to-day use and version 4 for sharing. To do this you’ll have to download the whole version of iTunes — don’t use the Software Update control panel — and move iTunes 4 out of the Applications folder while you install 4.0.1.
In any event, you can continue to enjoy music sharing on your local network. If you have two AirPort-enabled Macs, you can store all your music on, for example, your desktop machine and ‘‘narrowcast’’ it to your laptop anywhere within a 50m radius (even further if you have AirPort Extreme).
But the local network sharing remained, and was popular in college dorms etc.
Here's an article I wrote about it at the time...
IT’S the Apple software update you won’t want to install.
No sooner had users begun to discover the coolest but little-known feature in Apple’s new iTunes 4 jukebox software, than the company yanked the function in an update.
iTunes 4 had the ability to stream songs to other Macs via the Internet. By entering another user’s IP address in the "Connect to shared music" dialogue box, one could view another’s music library and playlists, and stream — not download — their songs.
Naturally this worked best if both users had a broadband connection.
However, a minority of users chose to abuse this privilege, hacking the function to allow the actual downloading of songs from other users’ Macs, in the same style as peer-to-peer file-sharing services like Gnutella and KaZaa.
Some websites posted libraries from which visitors could download songs.
Soon the American media was all over it, linking piracy to Apple’s supposedly anti-piracy iTunes Music Store This panicked record companies, which had done a deal with Apple to sell their music via the online store.
Apple responded this week by crippling the streaming function in an update, iTunes 4.0.1.
While Internet sharing is gone, users will still be able to stream their music on a home or local-area network.
User reaction to the iTunes ‘‘downgrade’’ has been predictably fierce, with many complaining that honest users shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a minority. Others can see Apple’s side, however, and reason that they don’t use Internet file sharing that much anyway.
So what to do if you want to continue Internet music sharing with friends? The obvious solution is not to upgrade to iTunes 4.0.1. However iTunes 4 won’t share with 4.0.1, so you’ll have to ensure your friends don’t upgrade either if you intend music-sharing with them. And if you don’t upgrade you’ll miss out on other improvements like
‘‘performance and network enhancements’’, along with future features.
Another solution is to keep two copies of iTunes on your Mac: version 4.0.1 for day-to-day use and version 4 for sharing. To do this you’ll have to download the whole version of iTunes — don’t use the Software Update control panel — and move iTunes 4 out of the Applications folder while you install 4.0.1.
In any event, you can continue to enjoy music sharing on your local network. If you have two AirPort-enabled Macs, you can store all your music on, for example, your desktop machine and ‘‘narrowcast’’ it to your laptop anywhere within a 50m radius (even further if you have AirPort Extreme).
Last edited:
A little bit of tech history encapsulated right here in this post…