Apple Officially Retires Music Memos App

As expected, Apple has officially retired its Music Memos app, which allows musicians and songwriters to capture song ideas on the fly.

As noted by The 8-Bit, as of today Music Memos no longer shows up in App Store searches. Nevertheless, users who installed the app prior to March 2 can still use it and re-download the app if necessary using their ‌App Store‌ purchase history.

Apple announced in December that it planned to retire Music Memos after March 1, and advised users to export their Music Memos recordings to the Voice Memos library to ensure that they're saved.

Originally launched in January 2016, the app was able to analyze rhythm and chords of acoustic guitar and piano recordings, and instantly add drums and a bass line to provide a virtual, customizable backing band.

However, after improving Voice Memos in step with newer releases of iOS, Apple clearly became less convinced of the utility of also offering the Music Memos app, which received few updates in the course of its life.

The last update, version 1.0.7, only added the ability to export Music Memos recordings to the Voice Memos library, and Apple now encourages all musicians to use Voice Memos over Music Memos. Apple says that Voice Memos can be used to quickly capture ideas just as easily, and recordings can be taken further with GarageBand.

Exporting Music Memos to Voice Memos requires an iPhone with iOS 14 or an iPad with iPadOS 14, along with the latest versions of Voice Memos and Music Memos. Exported content will appear in Voice Memos in a folder titled "Music Memos."