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In macOS Catalina, Apple is sunsetting the iTunes app and has split it into three apps instead: Music, Podcasts, and TV, which has left questions about what's happening to iTunes on other platforms.
Apple told Ars Technica that on Windows, there will be no changes. Those who use iTunes on a PC to manage their devices, listen to music, and make iTunes purchases will be able to continue to do so.
There were no details provided, however, on what's going to happen when the Music, Podcasts, and TV apps gain new features over time. Whether those features will also come to iTunes on Windows remains to be seen.
For now, though, Windows users will see no changes to iTunes on the Windows platform.
As for Mac users, installing Catalina removes iTunes and replaces it with Music and Podcasts (TV is coming this fall). Device management is still present in macOS Catalina, and you'll see an iPhone or an iPad plugged into your Mac listed as a device in the Finder sidebar.
Top Rated Comments
Finder has all the same synchronisation options as iTunes used to have. It looks and behaves the exact same. The only thing that seems to be missing is support for ringtones and that's pretty much it. You connect your iOS device, open Finder and you will see your device in the sidebar. Click on it and you have the exact same view as you used to have in iTunes. They pretty much ripped out the code from iTunes and put it into Finder.
Same goes for the new Music-app. The UX-design has been slightly updated but the features are exactly the same as you had in iTunes. You can add local files, you can RIP CD's, you can access songs purchased through iTunes Store, you can purchase additional songs, you can connect to iCloud Music Library and you can access Apple Music. It's much faster and more fluid as a standalone application, but the functionality and underlining code seems to be 99% the same.
The new Podcast application? Not much different. Just like with the Music-application it has the exact same features and capabilities as the Podcast function in iTunes used to have. And just like the Music-application the performance and fluidity seems to have greatly improved by the code being separated into it's own application.
Those wondering about Audiobook's? They are automatically moved over to the Book's application and behave pretty much exactly the same as they did in iTunes just faster and more fluid. If you have imported audiobook's from Audible your authorisation gets automatically transferred and your audiobook's are all still there.
TV-app you say? Same story. You will find all your movies and TV-shows purchased or rented in the new TV-app. It's snappier and more fluid as compared to navigating your library in iTunes.
This is all great, but some might be somewhat disappointed that there are so little changes to the applications and their functionality. They are 99% the exact same as they were in iTunes, just separated into separate applications which obviously has improved the performance and there are some slight UX-design changes and improvements as a result of the application being more dedicated towards a single purpose. But there is no re-imagining or re-work of anything.