Apple Is Finally Killing iTunes

Apple Is Finally Killing iTunes

Farewell to a clunky but world-shattering icon

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It’s the end of a music era. Nearly two decades after launching iTunes and ripping up the retail-store model of album purchases, Apple is ready to retire the iconic product, according to Bloomberg. During the software keynote at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California next Monday, the tech giant is set to replace iTunes with standalone music, television and podcast apps.

The move, which has been rumored for years now, will align Apple’s media strategy across the board: iPhones and iPads already offer separate Music, TV and Podcast apps in lieu of the centralized iTunes app that lives on Macs and Macbooks. Users can expect the new Music app to offer some of the same functionalities that iTunes currently does — such as purchasing songs and syncing phones — just with a sleeker interface that’s free of the outdated and oft-bemoaned features of the heritage product, and more closely bundled with streaming service Apple Music.

But the scrapping of iTunes’ brand symbolizes a lot, too. By portioning out its music, television and podcast offerings into three separate platforms, Apple will pointedly draw attention to itself as a multifaceted entertainment services provider, no longer as a hardware company that happens to sell entertainment through one of its many apps. That’s crucial for Apple’s future, as the company combats sluggish phone sales with aggressive growth in its services division. At WWDC this year, according to various reports, Apple is planning to buff up other apps including Books, Messages and Mail; it also announced ambitious plans for original video programming featuring the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell just a few months ago, in another bid to grow its content presence in entertainment industries.

Welcome as the death of iTunes may be to frustrated users, the software will forever deserve credit for the revolution it engineered in the early 2000s. Before iTunes debuted, the music industry was tearing its hair out trying to combat illegal file-sharing on Napster; Jobs’ new product presented the digital era’s first sustainable, user-friendly way to listen to music. Other firms like Sony and Microsoft had toyed with the idea of digital record stores, yet they “were technology companies that knew how to build disc players and hardware, but they weren’t companies that had demonstrated Apple’s sophistication with regard to software,” Warner Music’s vice president Paul Vidich recalled toRolling Stone in 2013, on the iTunes Store’s 10th anniversary. “It really took a company that was able to bridge those two things and come up with an attractive consumer product.”

I completely forgot iTunes was a thing until I saw this article, so I don't really care

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Apple seems to want to make iOS and macOS the same thing

What a disturbing future this is...

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Even if I wasn't a physical media die-hard and wanted to buy music solely via digital distribution, I'd still want to own it instead of paying a monthly fee to stream it. (Yeah, I read the article and know people will still be able to buy music via a separate Apple Music store, it's the symbolism of shutting iTunes down as a brand that I find a bit disconcerting, as though it's a harbinger of things to come.)

No, the discontinued Simpsons DVDs were the harbinger of things to come. The days of ownership are already dying off.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

The days of ownership are already dying off.

Is buying physical copies yet another thing Millennials are ruining?

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Is buying physical copies yet another thing Millennials are ruining?

We're talking about a generation who think desktop computers are for luddites.

Spoiler

The answer is yes.

 

[Dan Abrams]

The days of ownership are already dying off.

Apple's last keynote was all about their new subscription services. Be a good goy and pay $10-$40 a month to get the news, shitty Apple produced TV shows, and video games. Because it's better to squeeze the consumers for guaranteed money every month than counting on them to buy something every so often.

 

[The Lawgiver]

What's fucking inherently confusing about this is the fact they're reating it like it's a new improvement "making it an all in one multifaceted experience" or whatever the fuck by splitting a single media downloads store thing that comes free with your device to several things you need to pay for to use.
Unless I read that completely wrong in my sleep deprived stupor, Fuck this timeline.

 

[Lemmingwise]

On a much lighter note, ICQ is still running strong.

 

[💗Freddie Freaker💗]

Good, it was a pile of shit.

I was much more sad about the death of AIM.

On a much lighter note, ICQ is still running strong.

Who use ICQ though? Seriously.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

Good, it was a pile of shit.

Who use ICQ though? Seriously.

I do. Not frequently, but I trust it a hell of a lot more than Skype.

 

[Florence]

So, uh... How are you supposed to transfer files to your phone now? Cause I don’t see Apple including support for stuff like VLC if they can’t make money off of it.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

So, uh... How are you supposed to transfer files to your phone now? Cause I don’t see Apple including support for stuff like VLC if they can’t make money off of it.

"We hope you enjoy our new Pay to Transfer feature!"

 

[Watcher]

I can't trust streaming shit for the life of me.

First off, I live in an area of piss poor coverage so my phone sometimes goes out, so I can't even stream all the time.

Most streaming apps allow you to download music for an offline purpose. Spotify included

Second, there's dozens upon dozens of songs that aren't available on streaming shit that I love.

You can usually add music from your hard drive into playlists of your own. I know Spotify does this

Third, if I can't control what I can do with the files directly, then why bother?

Convenience. The biggest problem I've always had with downloading music is how long it takes to track it down and how it doesn't sync across my devices. I have to put in a lot of work doing things like getting my playlists setup just right across all of my devices with my entire music library. If you're only doing this with 100 songs it's easy but imagine doing this 3-4 times across 1000 songs and 40 playlists.

In terms of "owning" music it's debatable if you truly own music in general considering how invasive companies are with it. Sure you can download a pirated mp3, but how different is that compared to using a streaming app's download feature? The only thing I see is that the streaming app locks you to its player.

 

[Biggie Smalls' Taint]

Most streaming apps allow you to download music for an offline purpose. Spotify included

You can usually add music from your hard drive into playlists of your own. I know Spotify does this

Convenience. The biggest problem I've always had with downloading music is how long it takes to track it down and how it doesn't sync across my devices. I have to put in a lot of work doing things like getting my playlists setup just right across all of my devices with my entire music library. If you're only doing this with 100 songs it's easy but imagine doing this 3-4 times across 1000 songs and 40 playlists.

In terms of "owning" music it's debatable if you truly own music in general considering how invasive companies are with it. Sure you can download a pirated mp3, but how different is that compared to using a streaming app's download feature? The only thing I see is that the streaming app locks you to its player.

Thing is that once you stop paying for Spotify (or if the service ceases to exist) your entire library goes poof.
A pirated MP3 is for ever.

 

[theshep]

Thank fuck for that. I might finally be able to delete iTunesHelper or whatever the fuck it's called which runs in the background. Worse than herpes, I imagine.

 

[Wake me up]

pay $10-$40 a month to get the news

Imagine being so un-woke that you have to pay to get your news from Steve Job's rotting corpse (ie. Apple). At that point it's an actual objective improvement to your life if you become a transgender dangerhair SJW because at least it means you're not 100% spineless, even though you still can't use your brain for however little mileage you could hope to get out of it.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

We're talking about a generation who think desktop computers are for luddites.

How did that happen? Yeah smartphones, but smartphones are much more limited than desktops.

Typing stuff on a smartphone or tablet is a pain in the ass.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

How did that happen? Yeah smartphones, but smartphones are much more limited than desktops.

Typing stuff on a smartphone or tablet is a pain in the ass.

People who don't understand how beneficial desktops are, yet have to still feel they have the superior tech.

 

[Weppers]

So how am I supposed to put my MP3 library on my iphone now? And for that matter, how am I supposed to put my MP3 library on my ipod from 2006 that I still use because it doesn't split every album I load onto it into 12 single-song albums with the same name and cover art like it does when I try to put new music on my phone?

 

[Stab You in the Back]

RIP my 10 year-old iPod Touch.

Guess this is mostly an attempt by Apple to brick their old products without actually breaking the law. On the plus side, it marks the point where I can finally divorce myself from Apple products once and for all.

 

[Detrogen]

RIP my 10 year-old iPod Touch.

Guess this is mostly an attempt by Apple to brick their old products without actually breaking the law. On the plus side, it marks the point where I can finally divorce myself from Apple products once and for all.

Same. I keep an old IPod Touch just for music in my car. If the app is still operable, but they just don’t update it anymore, that’s fine. I get all my music from CDs, vinyls and amazon anyway.