Apple has officially decided to shut down their iTunes music service, choosing instead to break up the desktop service and offer three separate applications for music, television and podcasts.
The transition will take place when the macOS Catalina, the latest version of Apple’s Mac operating system, debuts in the fall.
Apple also confirmed that your iTunes content isn’t going to just disappear: “Users will have access to their entire music library, whether they downloaded the songs, purchased them or ripped them from a CD,” reads a press release.
Technology and Telco editor at Finder, Alex Kidman, told News.com.au (as transcribed by The Sun), “iTunes as an app, whether you’re on a Mac or a PC … was trying to serve too many needs at once.” He went on to state that while Apple had yet to reveal how migration of content would take place, there is not much concern that there will be issues, adding, “That’s data that Apple already makes available to your existing iOS devices, and there’s no real reason to think that it won’t take this approach with split apps under MacOS.
“If you’ve got content purchased through Apple, it’ll still be on record with them and should be accessible on compatible devices. For PC users, we’ll have to wait and see what Apple’s replacements will be, but again, it’s not like Apple wants to lose consumers who have Apple Music subscriptions, or those who buy or rent movies or TV shows through Apple. That’s still a lucrative revenue source for them.”
