It was recently revealed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference that iTunes would no
longer exist in macOS Catalina.
Instead, most of iTunes functionality would be broken up between three different apps:
Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV.
In a very controversial, but necessary move.
And this has left many people wondering why Apple would get rid of iTunes at all.
I mean, why not continue calling the application iTunes instead of simply Music?
After all, iTunes has accumulated name recognition and has a very important place in Apple’s
history.
Why would they not capitalize on the iTunes brand?
Also, isn’t Apple all about keeping things simple and not fragmenting their services?
So why are they turning one application, iTunes, into three different apps?
Some people may consider that to be unnecessarily complicated.
But in this video we’re going to explore why breaking up and ending iTunes was the
best decision Apple could’ve made.
This is Greg with Apple Explained, and I want to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video.
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Now in order to understand why Apple put an end to iTunes, we have to go back to 2001,
when the application was first introduced.
Because it was a very different time and iTunes was a very different application.
You see, before music players like the iPod were popular, songs were stored on CDs.
And everyone had CD players or stereos to listen to albums they purchased.
But people wanted to do more with their music.
They wanted to create playlists, or mixtapes, that featured songs from several different
albums, and burn that music onto a blank disk.
That way you had custom CDs for party music, for studying, or for road trips.
But in order to make those mixtapes, you needed what was called a digital music jukebox on
your computer.
A piece of software that actually ripped music from CDs and turned them into digital files
so you could arrange them on a blank CD for burning.
The problem was these applications tended to be very unwieldy and unintuitive.
Apple recognized this demand in the market, and created their own music jukebox called
iTunes.
It’s big selling point was that it made ripping, mixing, and burning music easier
than ever before.
So the application’s purpose was fairly straightforward.
Load up your iTunes library with music from CDs you’ve purchased, conveniently listen
to your entire music collection on your computer, and burn music you want to take with you onto
blank CDs.
It was a simple yet highly desirable application that turned out to be a big hit with Mac users.
But as time passed, iTunes became less simple, and less desirable.
Later in 2001 Apple announced the iPod, which synced with iTunes.
So the application became a device manager in addition to being a music jukebox and CD
burner.
In 2003, Apple announced the iTunes Music Store.
So iTunes became a digital music marketplace in addition to being a device manager, a music
jukebox and CD burner.
In 2005 Apple introduced Podcasts and video content, so iTunes became a Podcast manager
and video marketplace, in addition to being a music marketplace, device manager, music
jukebox and CD burner.
In 2010 Apple introduced iBooks.
So iTunes became an eBook store.
Later in 2010 Apple introduced Ping, a social media service centered around music.
It was discontinued two years later, but in the meantime iTunes also served as a social
media platform.
In 2013 Apple introduced iTunes Radio.
So the application also served as a pandora-like music streaming service.
By 2015, iTunes had become a bloated shadow of its former self.
It was slow, resource-heavy, and difficult to navigate.
Apple had tried to make it the ultimate multimedia platform.
But in reality, iTunes was sabotaged by layer after layer of new code, new services, and
new features that made the application less enjoyable and less intuitive.
So when Apple was expected to announce their new music streaming service in 2015, it was
seen by many as a fresh start for the company.
An opportunity to lay a new foundation for an optimized music streaming service that
would be fast, user friendly, and of course, have a dedicated application separate from
iTunes.
But as we all know, that didn’t happened.
Apple Music was shoved into iTunes, and therefore burdened by the all the symptoms of a bloated
application.
It was slow, buggy, and unnecessarily confusing.
Problems that Apple Music’s competitor, Spotify, weren’t experiencing.
So Apple was forced to make a tough decision.
It was clear that iTunes had gone from golden child to problem child, but what approach
should the company take to solve the issue?
Should they rewrite iTunes from the ground up with a focus on optimizing all of its features?
Or should they break up iTunes into smaller, more lightweight applications with less features?
Well, we recently found out that Apple chose the second approach, and here’s why.
Trying to rewrite iTunes and optimizing all of its services would have simply landed Apple
in the same situation.
The core problem with iTunes is that Apple overloaded it with too many stores, services,
and features.
So the solution is to do the opposite of that.
Take iTunes apart piece by piece and spread everything out over multiple apps.
And if you consider that fragmentation, you’d be sorely mistaken.
In fact, I’d call it optimization.
There’s a reason why iPhones run iOS, Macs run macOS, iPads run iPadOS, Apple Watches
run watchOS, and the Apple TV runs tvOS.
It’s not because Apple wanted to fragment one operating system across five products,
it’s because every device needs its own optimized OS.
Similarly, every service needs its own optimized app.
And I think Apple’s Craig Federighi demonstrated this point beautifully on stage.
He pointed out that many iTunes users have been asking, “Can iTunes do even more?”
Then joked that, yes, iTunes can in fact do a lot more!
How about calendar in iTunes, Mail in iTunes, how about Safari in iTunes?
How great would it be to have all of your favorite tracks and apps in once place?
And of course we’d add a dock to switch between these apps.
Now obviously Federighi wasn’t being serious.
But he was alluding to just how bloated iTunes had become.
Which was an important point to make before revealing that iTunes would be broken up between
three apps: Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV.
And I don’t think this should come as a shock for a couple reasons.
First, this isn’t the first time a feature has migrated from iTunes.
It happened back in 2015 when Apple moved Audiobooks to a dedicated iBooks application.
Second, consider the approach iOS took to dedicated apps.
It had a Podcasts and TV app for years.
And just like macOS adopted iOS’s Home, News, Stocks, and voice memos apps last year
in Mojave.
It’s adopting the Music, Podcasts and Apple TV apps this year in Catalina.
So it’s almost as if iTunes became irrelevant rather than being deliberately discontinued.
And I think this is a big step in the right direction.
These new apps have been built from the ground up, which means their performance has been
optimized and they function in a way we’re more familiar with.
But this transition from iTunes has raised a lot of questions.
Like whether existing iTunes libraries will be deleted, or if it’s no longer possible
to buy music from the iTunes store.
So let me try to answer as many of these questions as possible.
Your existing iTunes music library will remain intact.
macOS Catalina will import all of your music including purchases from the iTunes music
store, in addition to ripped music from CDs and MP3s from other sources.
So everything you have in your iTunes library now will simply become accessible from the
new Music app.
Now when it comes to buying music, you can still do that since the iTunes music store
is not shutting down.
Apple is simply focusing more on streaming music rather than purchasing it, in order
to accommodate user behavior.
And if you recently purchased the new iPod touch, you’ll be happy to know that you
can still sync your iPod with your Mac.
It’ll simply be done through the Finder rather than the Music app.
This makes much more sense, considering every device connected to your Mac appears in the
Finder.
And I should note managing your iPod works the same way as it did before in iTunes, there
hasn’t been an updated interface or any additional features.
And when it comes to the tv shows and movies you purchased from iTunes, those will be available
in the Apple TV app.
While you can see all of your saved podcasts in the dedicated Podcasts app.
So now you can probably see how all of this makes sense.
Apple has given music content, video content, and podcasts their own apps.
So users know exactly where to go to find the type of content they need, and they’ll
be able to interact with that content in a much more enjoyable way since the applications
are fast, simplified, and optimized.
Now that’s the situation for Mac users, but what about iTunes on Windows?
Well, for them, nothing will change.
Apple hasn’t introduced Windows versions of their Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV apps,
so Windows users have no way of moving on from iTunes since there’s nothing to transition
to.
We’ll have to wait and see if Apple extends an olive branch to Windows users, or simply
leaves them high and dry.
So it appears Apple’s decision to ditch iTunes and focus on lighter, more refined
applications has really paid off for their users.
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Alright guys thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.