macOS 10.15 Expected to Feature Standalone Music and Podcasts Apps and Redesigned Books App

The next major release of macOS will feature standalone Music and Podcasts apps alongside Apple's promised TV app coming to the Mac this fall, according to 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo, who has discovered icons for the apps. Rambo says he has confirmed the plans with sources familiar with the matter.

podcasts tv mac icons

Image via 9to5Mac

The report also claims that the existing Books app on Mac will be redesigned to look more like the Apple News app on Mac.

Like the ‌Apple News‌, Home, Stocks, and Voice Memos apps on macOS Mojave, Rambo says the new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps will be built with Apple's so-called Marzipan developer tools, which allow for a single app to be designed to run across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with a similar codebase.

Despite the standalone Music and Podcasts apps, Rambo says iTunes will stick around on the next major macOS release, as it is still used for some legacy purposes like manual syncing of older iPhones, iPads, and iPods.

Apple's plans to bring UIKit-based Music, Podcasts, and possibly Books apps to the Mac were first hinted at by developer Steve Troughton-Smith on Twitter last week. Apple should unveil macOS 10.15 alongside iOS 13, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13 at WWDC 2019, which kicks off on June 3 in San Jose.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Popular Stories

iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Reaches Key Milestone Ahead of Mass Production

Monday April 28, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report. iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue

20th Anniversary iPhone Likely to Be Made in China Due to 'Extraordinarily Complex' Design

Monday April 28, 2025 4:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Feature

All iPhone 17 Models Again Rumored to Feature 12GB of RAM

Tuesday April 29, 2025 3:36 am PDT by
All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM. ...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...

Top Rated Comments

PJivan Avatar
79 months ago
I remember the days when Mac OS updates were interesting. We talked about things like multitasking, 64-bit, Quartz Extreme, Fast User Switching, Expose, other GUI changes etc.
Now the big features are mainly service related...
Like new file system, 32 bit deprecation, SIP and Gatekeeper, external gpu, Core ML, caching server, metal, marzipan are not deep and interesting change... maybe you don't like IT like you used to.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TMRJIJ Avatar
79 months ago
As long as it is fully functional. The current Marzipan apps seemed quite lazy and just simple ports of the iOS counterpart with no added desktop features.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mikey44 Avatar
79 months ago
I have a feeling that the music app will only be Apple Music, rather than allowing you to maintain your own library, which is what iTunes is supposed to do... I'd love to be proved wrong, but based on how Apple has been moving... they are trying to push services so much recently.

Each of these can earn them some money, where as a dedicated library doesn't earn them as much money.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dombi Avatar
79 months ago
I remember the days when Mac OS updates were interesting. We talked about things like multitasking, 64-bit, Quartz Extreme, Fast User Switching, Expose, other GUI changes etc.
Now the big features are mainly service related...
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
79 months ago
I remember the days when Mac OS updates were interesting. We talked about things like multitasking,
APFS

64-bit,
Swift

Quartz Extreme
Metal

Fast User Switching
Desktop Stacks

, Expose,
Continuity (Auto Unlock, Universal Clipboard, Handoff, Personal Hotspot, text message sync, AirDrop)

other GUI changes
Dark Mode

Siri, Purgeable Storage, Tabs, Night Shift, Notification Center.

Heck, Continuity alone is awesome. It took several releases to work reliably for me, but when it does, it's really awesome.

Keep in mind that early Mac OS X releases added many features in part because, well, they kind of lacked them. It wasn't until around 10.3 or 10.4 that all the essential features were there.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jagolden Avatar
79 months ago
Nothing bloated about iTunes. It’s quite simple, one-stop for buying/loading/ripping music and audio files. The term “bloated” seems to be thrown around a lot without any understanding or support to back it up.
It’s certainly not confusing to use, and unless your computer is under powered, it’s certainly not slow.

Unlike so many it seems, I’m quite capable on manually managing my files, don’t need someone else to do it for me.
Don’t need auto-sync or sync over wi-fi.
Having tens of thousands of music and audio files both in and out of iTunes, managing the files I want at any given time using iTunes is ideal.
I don’t even keep thousands of files in iTunes, simply dragging them onto my phone or iPods when desired. Why would I want to give this up?
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)