Apple announced at its Worldwide Developer Conference that the famed iTunes would be phased out. Twenty years ago, iTunes was first introduced, revolutionizing the music industry. It changed how people purchased the music they listened too.
No More iTunes?
Now that iTunes is out; you might be thinking what’s going to replace it. Apple is going to replace it with three separate apps: Music, TV, and Podcasts. If you own an iPhone or iPad, these apps have already been swapped out for iTunes.
Apple has been pushing its subscription based, Apple Music on its mobile devices. Likely, the Mac version of the Music app will also be subscription based. With shrinking iPhone sales, pushing a subscription business model will help Apple make up the difference.
What’s Next?
The Music app focuses on personalized recommendations for songs and playlists. It also has playlists that are updated periodically, some as frequently as every week, with new music. The Podcast app uses machine learning to help you search for new content. The TV will feature programming from networks like Showtime or HBO as well as Apple original programming.
For Mac users who used iTunes to sync their phones with their computers, Apple said that there would be a feature in Finder to allow you to continue to do this. It will be in the Sidebar of Finder.
As for Windows users, there is no word on what will replace iTunes. There also has not been word on what people with iTunes gift cards will be able to do with the remaining balances. Another lingering question is what will happen to the already downloaded content. They claim that the playlists and music in iTunes will stay, but haven’t gone into details on how that will happen.
We are all going to wait for more information from Apple. It is likely they will roll out something to help manage this content. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
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