Apple iPrunes iTunes: Moldering platform's death expected to be announced at WWDC Apple is expected to confirm the imminent death of its iTunes service to be replaced with separate apps for music, video and podcasts. The venerable service launched in 2001 and helped push the iPod to the top of the dedicated listening device charts. It provided an early, easy-to-use way to access paid-for music. But with …
There is going to be an Apple Music application that will take on that role for music, so iPods will still be supported.
They didn't drop the functionality of what iTunes does, they are just dropping the kitchen sink application that has taken on multiple roles over the years and split them out into music, TV, etc.
And presumably existing installs of iTunes will continue to work.
But with streaming services now taking about three quarters of music revenues, the days of downloads are numbered.
by streaming services, I assume you also include radio stations, because otherwise the numbers are very wrong.
Some of us will always prefer downloads to hardware we control no matter how sweet the streaming deals seem: they're loss-leading dependency deals.
Unfortunately, that's largely irrelevant. Downloaders are probably already a minority, along with blu-ray watchers.
Streaming is a lot better for the middleman, as it means they no longer have to pay the artist any money, while it looks cheaper to the end user. Until, of course the service stops, and your library disappears.
In the next few years, expect streamers to require a subscription for each of the major labels, each of them still not paying the artist.
"Until, of course the service stops, and your library disappears."
I don't worry about having a library for a streaming service, because as far as I'm concerned streaming is just a variant on broadcasting but with the advantage that I can watch it when I like rather than when the programme is broadcast.
There are some things that I want to keep (rare) and for those it will either be Blu-ray or a download. That's where iTunes has been useful, their catalogue includes lots of rare and difficult to source movies and TV shows at (mostly) reasonable prices. I would be ticked off if Apple decided to prevent access to the stuff I paid for. Although that's easy to circumvent these days since de-DRM apps are fairly widely available.
I heard yesterday that this change won't affect Windows users since Apple is keeping iTunes on Windows.
Isn't it the iTunes app that's about to be killed off, not the service? That is, all the iTunes store backend will remain to support the new apps. This is roughly similar to the BBC's awful Sound/iPlayer split. What I can't tell is for how long the current iTunes which has DRM'd content that has been paid for will continue to work.
Yesssss… The BBC advertises its BBC Sounds app constantly, but never in any of its promotional announcements has it ever actually bothered to say why I should take the time to install it instead of the BBC iPlayer Radio app, which I already have.
What advantages/disadvantages does the BBC Sounds app have, or are they just burning through licence payers’ money in hand outs to their meeja/dev chums, because…?
"how long the current iTunes which has DRM'd content that has been paid for will continue to work."
And there in lies the question.
All that content I paid for that came with a neatly packaged backup to sit on the shelf is mine in perpetuity.
All that content I paid for online needs some other form of backup, and since it has DRM, how do I restore and authorise it?
If I can't use iTunes to buy, download and play my stored music, then I'm off. Apple have already pissed me off mightily by farting around with Books so it makes it difficult to add all my PDF manuals to it.
For my current use cases - using music libraries across several devices via periodic syncs - iTunes has been ok. Turning iTunes into a streaming service will break that, so I'll make the effort to move to something else. I don't wish to rent my music, I want to own it. I also regularly travel to places where connectivity is dodgy (ie anywhere outside major population centres).
While I'm about it, I'll also make the effort to move all my books/pdf's to some other reader.
iTunes is the only reason I stick to the Apple ecosystem at the moment so this would just mean there's no reason at all for me to buy iPhones. Bye-bye Apple then.
Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot...
...and I forgot to ask: Suggestions for music player replacements for iTunes from you commentards?
I need it for music, audiobooks and podcasts only. Sync to various devices, the most troublesome of which I expect to be the old iPod (Classic version???) which lives in the car. (Don't want to replace that if I can help it - it's a good solution at the moment. Will probably even pull it to bits and replace the spinny disk when it fails)
There are these alternatives but the list is about a decade old. Then again I guess classic iPods haven't changed much in the past decade either.
Was I hallucinating a time when one could partition the space on an iPod and just copy stuff to it?
Having a spinning-rust original iPod got you music _and_ a handy backup drive.
Pretty sure I was not hallucinating being able to re-arrange the apps on my Touch or phone with a decent drag-and-drop bit in iTunes, rather than the multi-window 15-puzzle hell that is modern iOS.
Yeah, iTunes sucks, but it (and iPhoto, and iDVD) sucked _less_ than their modern replacements.
Now get off my lawn!
Never tried iWeb, but iPhoto used to do an OK job of exporting an album as a website (that worked across at least Firefox, IE, Safari, and iCab).
Photos doesn't allow it at all. Like all the newish Mac stuff, the apps are siloed roach-motels: data checks in, never checks out.
Hmm, I guess the Eagles were right about Hotel California. Maybe I should try stabbing MacOS with my steely knife? Nope, still can't kill the beast.
"I don't wish to rent my music, I want to own it."
Sorry to disappoint, but unless you wrote the music or specifically bought exclusive ownership from the author and artist, technically you don't own any of the music.
You may own a non-exclusive licence that allows you to listen to it any time you like. You may own some physical media that contains a copy of the music. But you don't own the music.
That said, like you, I like being in control of my own destiny. I don't want to stream the music, I want to have my own (licensed) copy I maintain.
You will be able to use an Apple Music application to buy, download and play your stored music, so nothing will change except the name and not having a kitchen sink approach that made it also include TV, podcasts and other stuff.
People have been complaining about how much iTunes sucks, especially on the PC, for years and now everyone is up in arms that it is going away? I guess you can't please everyone.
A few years ago Itunes decided to delete various songs on my Ipod, about 20% of them if I recall. I never bought a damn thing from Apple, so they probably decided my freebies and finders and bought-somewhere-else tracks were "unauthorized". Whatever that case, that's the LAST time I let Itunes anywhere near my Ipod.
Since then I've been using CopyTrans. Lets me load anything I want on my Ipod, without Big Brother Apple deciding what I can and can't do with it. I suspect there are other non-Apple utilities to let you manage your 'pod, have a look see.
"Since then I've been using CopyTrans."
Ooh that's handy. I used to use Senuti but I've no idea if that works these days. Thanks for the tip.
With three iPods for me, and one for SWMBO, and over 80GB of music I don't want to lose it. I'm already ticked off by the disappearance of the iPod from the store. The iPhone app doesn't cut it.
Streaming is useful way of finding new music, but the issue with streaming is that the rug can be pulled out from under you at anytime leaving you with nothing to show for it. The steaming music service could close down, or they could have a fall out with certain record labels and they labels remove the songs from the service. At least with download you still have you own copy you can play no matter what.
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