iTunes was a defining piece of software and a vital component of music culture for years, but now, that is coming to an end. At Apple’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose today, the company officially confirmed the news that started circulating a few days ago, that the iTunes app is being discontinued in favor of replacement options.
The current iTunes app handles various media types, but the app will be broken up into individual apps for podcasts, TV shows, and movies, along with a new Apple Music app. This will be rolled out with the next Mac OS update, 10.15, which is codenamed “Catalina.” Billboard reports, though, that Apple will keep the iTunes Music Store alive in the Finder on Mac, and that the iTunes app will continue to exist on Windows platforms.
As for the Apple Music app, it is set to include many features that iTunes users will be familiar with. Users will be able to manage their libraries in a similar way and create smart playlists, for example. Meanwhile, device management will become a feature of Mac’s Finder, so iPhones and iPods will have direct integration with the Mac operating system.
This is a move that makes plenty of sense, considering that Apple has been focused on Apple Music since its 2015 launch. With this change, iTunes ends a run that began with its launch in 2001 and ended with the app being remembered as a significant piece of music history.
