On May 11, 2019, Digital Music News reported that Apple was preparing to eliminate music downloads on the iTunes Store with an aggressive, 2-4 year termination timetable. After the publication of this story, Apple issued a rare denial of the alleged shutdown proposals. Apple media executive, Tom Neumayr, replied quickly,  “It is not true. We are not shutting down iTunes downloads per your story yesterday”.

Apple Music, TV and Podcasts

Three weeks later, during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced that iTunes will be phased out and replaced by three new apps called Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts on their new operating system, macOS Catalina (10.15) which launches this fall. Disclaimer: You can continue to use iTunes in your current macOS, so I am not suggesting that you upgrade to macOS Catalina later this year.

What happens to my music?

So, how does this affect the way you store, play and organize your music? First of all, there is no need to worry that you’ll lose any content or playlists on your Mac as all previous purchases and libraries will be maintained in each new app. All songs currently located in your iTunes Library will transfer to Apple Music, including songs that were imported from your CD collection as far back as 2001 when iTunes first launched. 

The iPhone, iPad and iPod will continue to have apps for Apple Music, TV and Podcasts and unlike the Mac, they will continue to have the iTunes Store app where you’ll be able to buy music and rent or buy movies and television shows. To confuse this already confusing process of renting or buying movies and tv shows, you can also rent or buy movies and tv shows through the TV app. 

Buy, Rent. Watch

On the Apple TV (the device, not the app), iTunes will live on through Movies iTunes and TV Shows iTunes where you can rent or buy that kind of content. You can also buy movies and tv shows through the Apple TV app. The Apple Music app on the Apple TV will allow you to stream music if you have an Apple Music subscription ($9.99/month). The standalone Podcasts app on the Apple TV is where you’ll continue to download and stream podcasts.

Buying Music from Apple Music

Although iTunes as an app will cease to exist in macOS Catalina, you’ll still be able to buy music from the iTunes Store via the sidebar of the Apple Music app. For customers who use iTunes to sync their iOS devices (iPhone, iPad and iPod), Apple will provide a tool located in the sidebar of the Finder on Macs. 

History of iTunes

iTunes was launched on January 9, 2001 during Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. iTunes played audio CDs, MP3s, created MP3s from CDs and burned them onto audio CDs.  iTunes was based on the SoundJam MP software code which Apple purchased from software developer Casady & Greene in 2000. Apple added the ability to burn CDs and included it in Mac OS 9 and later in Mac OS X (March 2001). Apple’s upward climb to become the world’s first publicly traded company to reach a market value of $1 trillion began here with iTunes and the iPod.

iTunes and iOS Device Timeline

iTunes 1.0 – January 9, 2001

iTunes for Mac OS X – February 21, 2001

iTunes 2.0 – October 23, 2001 (iPod support & equalizer)

iPod – October 23, 2001 (5GB for $399 – “1,000 songs in your pocket” )

iTunes 3.0 – July 17, 2002 (Smart playlists and Audible.com audiobook support)

iTunes 4.0 – April 28, 2003 (iTunes Music Store 200K songs @ $.99 each, iPod 3rd Gen support)

iTunes 4.1 – October 2003 (Windows support added)

iTunes 4.8 – May 9, 2005 (International music stores and iPod Video support)

iTunes 4.9 – June 28, 2005 (Podcasts and Motorola ROKR mobile phone support)

iTunes 5.0 – September 7, 2005 (Parental controls, smart shuffle and iPod nano support)

iTunes 6.0 – October 12, 2005 (GUI & Music Store changes, iPod Classic support)

iTunes 7.0 – September 12, 2006 (iPod games, gapless playback, CoverFlow added)

Apple TV – January 9, 2007 (Intel Pentium M CPU with 40 or 160 GB storage)

iTunes 7.2 – May 29, 2007 (iTunes Plus with DRM Free Music @ $1.29 per song)

iPhone – June 29, 2007 (4GB @ $499, 8GB @ $599 with 2-year ATT contract)

iTunes 7.3 – June 29, 2007 (iPhone support added)

iPod Touch – September 5, 2007 (3.5”, ARM 400MHz CPU with 8 or 16GB storage)

iTunes 7.7 – July 10, 2008 (App Store added, iPhone & iPod Touch wireless iTunes control)

iTunes 8.0 – September 9, 2008 (Genius sidebar and playlists added)

iTunes 9.0 – September 9, 2009 (Genius mixes, Home Sharing, iTunes LPs & iTunes Extras)

iPad – April 3, 2010 (9.7” screen, A4 CPU, 16, 32 or 64GB storage)

iTunes 10.0 – September 1, 2010 (Apple TV support, renamed AirTunes to AirPlay, new icon)

iPad mini – November 2, 2012 (7.9”, A8 CPU, 16, 32 or 64GB storage)

iTunes 11.0 – November 29, 2012 (UI redesign, new Store, improved search)

iTunes 12.0 – October 16, 2014 (Family Sharing, Recently Added, iTunes Store updates)

iTunes 12.2 – June 30, 2015 (Apple Music support, iTunes Connect, new icon)

iPad Pro – November 11, 2015 (12.9”, A9X & M9 CPU, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 or 1TB storage)

Apple TV 4K – September 12, 2017 (A10X Fusion CPU, 32 or 64GB NAND Flash storage)

iTunes 12.9 – September 24, 2018 (macOS Mojave support, new Apple Music features)