The death of iTunes has been looming for quite a while now, and over the
last several weeks, Apple itself has started the process of killing the
iTunes brand. This week, two new pieces of evidence have emerged that
further support the end of the iTunes brand at WWDC 2019.
First, Apple has completely wiped content from its iTunes social pages on
Instagram and Facebook. This change was first noted by users on Reddit
<https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bvinug/all_itunes_social_media_post
s_from_instagram/> . If you head to the iTunes page on Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/itunes> , you'll see that all of the content has
disappeared. MacRumors
<https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/01/apple-wipes-itunes-facebook-instagram-
pages/> notes that it appears Apple has migrated the iTunes Facebook
account to its Apple TV page <https://www.facebook.com/appletv> ,
transferring content as well as likes and followers.
Meanwhile, the iTunes account on Instagram
<https://www.instagram.com/itunes/> has also been completely wiped, with
the account's bio instructing users to following the @AppleTV
<https://www.instagram.com/AppleTV/> account instead. The iTunes account on
Twitter is still alive for now.
Additionally, developer Craig Hockenberry noted on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/chockenberry/status/1134978908195966977?s=21> this
weekend that at some point over the last several weeks, Apple has moved away
from
www.itunes.apple.com
URLs for Apple Music. Instead, the company has started using
www.music.apple.com
for certain artists and pages.
9to5Mac reported back in April that macOS 10.15
<https://9to5mac.com/2019/04/10/macos-10-15-itunes-standalone-apps/> will
split iTunes up into several standalone apps. This year's macOS update will
feature individual apps for Podcasts and TV
<https://9to5mac.com/2019/05/29/macos-10-15-music-tv-app-screenshots/> ,
while the Books app will also get a major redesign. The TV and Podcasts apps
are expected to be built using Marzipan, Apple's technology for easily
porting iPad apps to the Mac.
iTunes isn't dying completely, however. 9to5Mac reported last month
<https://9to5mac.com/2019/05/09/music-app-macos-itunes-code/> that the new
Music app in macOS 10.15 will still be based on iTunes code, and integrate
certain legacy iTunes features. However, it will be completely redesigned
and focus heavily on Apple Music, with features such as Podcasts and Video
being broken out into their own standalone applications.
We're just one day away from WWDC 2019, and 9to5Mac will have full coverage
of everything you need to know. Read our full roundup of what to expect here
<https://9to5mac.com/2019/05/31/wwdc-2019-roundup/>
Website:
https://9to5mac.com/
