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

Google maps feaure

Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you. Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

Apple to Make More Foldable iPhones Than Expected [Updated]

Tuesday December 9, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports. In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
iOS 26

15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2

Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Coming Soon With These 8 New Features on Your iPhone

Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon. Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week. iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 18 Pro Leak Adds New Evidence for Under-Display Face ID

Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker. According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds Second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found. Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
iPhone 17 Pro Cosmic Orange

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 18 Pro

Monday December 1, 2025 2:40 am PST by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth...
Johny Srouji

Apple's Chipmaking Chief Johny Srouji Responds to Report About Him Potentially Leaving

Monday December 8, 2025 9:23 am PST by
Apple's chipmaking chief Johny Srouji has reportedly indicated that he plans to continue working for the company for the foreseeable future. "I love my team, and I love my job at Apple, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon," said Srouji, in a memo obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Here is Srouji's full memo, as shared by Bloomberg:I know you've been reading all kind of rumors and...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3

Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
ipad blue prime day

iPad 12 Rumored to Get iPhone 17's A19 Chip, Breaking Apple Tradition

Wednesday December 10, 2025 12:22 pm PST by
The next-generation low-cost iPad will use Apple's A19 chip, according to a report from Macworld. Macworld claims to have seen an "internal Apple code document" with information about the 2026 iPad lineup. Prior documentation discovered by MacRumors suggested that the iPad 12 would be equipped with an A18 chip, not an A19 chip. The A19 chip was just released this year in the iPhone 17, and...

Top Rated Comments

PJivan Avatar
87 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
87 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
87 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
87 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
87 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
87 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)