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iTunes Expected to Be Retired After Over 18 Years

Friday May 31, 2019 7:01 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

While it was initially reported that iTunes would live on in macOS 10.15, it now looks like the app will be retired, over 18 years after it was introduced by the late Steve Jobs at Macworld on January 9, 2001.

Apple will be replacing iTunes with standalone Music, TV, and Podcasts apps in the next major version of macOS, expected to be unveiled at WWDC 2019 next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman:

End of iTunes

iTunes has been the way Apple users listen to music, watch movies and TV shows, hear podcasts, and manage their devices for almost two decades. This year, Apple is finally ready to move into a new era. The company is launching a trio of new apps for the Mac – Music, TV, and Podcasts – to replace iTunes. That matches Apple's media app strategy on iPhones and iPads. Without iTunes, customers can manage their Apple gadgets through the Music app.

This information lines up with a recent report from 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo, who claimed that iTunes will be renamed to "Music" on the Mac. In other words, iTunes is going away and will be replaced by the new Music app, which is expected to become the new utility for syncing and managing Apple devices.

Steve Jobs quote from Apple's press release about iTunes in 2001:

Apple has done what Apple does best — make complex applications easy, and make them even more powerful in the process. iTunes is miles ahead of every other jukebox application, and we hope its dramatically simpler user interface will bring even more people into the digital music revolution.

Here's what iTunes looked like in 2001:

iTunes has attracted its fair share of criticism over the years for being bloated software, so its split into dedicated Music, TV, and Podcasts apps will be much welcomed. Earlier this week, leaked screenshots provided us with our first glimpse at what the Music and TV apps should look like on macOS 10.15.

Apple is widely expected to announce iOS 13, macOS 10.15, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13 at its WWDC 2019 opening keynote on Monday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. MacRumors will have live coverage of the event on our website and through MacRumorsLive on Twitter, so be sure to follow along for the latest updates.

Related Roundup: macOS Catalina

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Quu

3 weeks ago

I love iTunes on my Mac. If they replace it with something else, it better be insanely great.

Rating: 113 Votes

Zachari

3 weeks ago

What is dead may never die.

Rating: 69 Votes

chooyoshi

3 weeks ago

Now if only they could simplify file transfers to iOS by allowing mass storage drag and drop!

Rating: 61 Votes

roland.g

3 weeks ago

Nobody needs iTunes anymore.
Apple Music is everything. As long as there's a Mac app that interfaces with Apple Music then everyone will be good.

Unfortunately you don’t know what you are talking about. Many many people don’t use Apple Music or the related services.

iTunes is bloated but likely they will fragment it and still fail to fix pervasive issues in both the Mac and iOS versions of the music app.

Rating: 56 Votes

BrettArchibald

3 weeks ago

So will I need three different applications to transfer my music, my videos, and my books to my iPhone now??

Rating: 53 Votes

trifid

3 weeks ago

‘Music app’ is probably going to be a lite iTunes with the same horrible UX or probably worse, way more dumbed down and unusable. The problem isn’t the multi-function, it’s the design.

Rating: 50 Votes

Zachari

3 weeks ago

So will I need three different applications to transfer my music, my videos, and my books to my iPhone now??

Come on! You don’t think Apple woul...

Oh nvm