Apple Will Likely Replace iTunes on macOS With Standalone Music, Podcasts, and TV Apps in Next Major Update (9to5mac.com)

Developer and blogger Guilherme Rambo, writing for 9to5Mac: Fellow developer Steve Troughton-Smith recently expressed confidence about some evidence found indicating that Apple is working on new Music, Podcasts, and perhaps Books apps for macOS, to join the new TV app. I've been able to independently confirm that this is true. On top of that, I've been able to confirm with sources familiar with the development of the next major version of macOS -- likely 10.15 -- that the system will include standalone Music, Podcasts, and TV apps, but it will also include a major redesign of the Books app.

The new Books app will have a sidebar similar to the News app on the Mac, it will also feature a narrower title bar with different tabs for the Library, Book Store, and Audiobook Store. On the library tab, the sidebar will list the user's Books, Audiobooks, PDFs and other collections, including custom ones. The new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps will be made using Marzipan, Apple's new technology designed to facilitate the porting of iPad apps to the Mac without too many code changes. Further reading: Steven Troughton-Smith Thinks iTunes Breakup is Nigh (DaringFireball).

Comments

long time coming

[spoot]

Get rid of that lumbering beast that is iTunes. But if a stand alone music app will handle music, will iTunes keep its moniker? Just take the leap and rename it Apple Explorer.

Re:long time coming

[alvinrod]

When not just call the standalone app iTunes and remove the other stuff? iTunes is still pretty recognizable as far as branding goes, so I don't see them throwing it away.

It has been long overdue for this though. Too much cruft over the years has left it a bloated mess. Hopefully the put some sane developers in charge of these apps who just want a clean, efficient app instead of the usual baboons that would fuck with the UI in the most bizarre manner possible.

Re:long time coming

[laie_techie]

I agree with "do one thing and do it well", so splitting up the functionality makes a lot of sense. Will iTunes still be the one application to sync everything between your laptop / desktop and your iDevice? Or is Apple pushing people to save everything on the iCloud?

Re:long time coming

[alvinrod]

Personally I'd like a separate app that can sync to devices, cloud, etc. that's independent of the apps that manage, play, or download the content. My biggest gripe with iTunes is that since they started their cloud music service, it's completely fucked everything up as far as device/content management goes. Maybe they thought they were trying to make it simple so that anyone could use it, but the reality is that they turned it into a mess that makes it almost impossible to get it to do what you actually want it to do.

What really kills software (and to a similar extend software companies) is that it gets too big and grows beyond what made it great to begin with and tries to glom all kinds of shit no one really wants onto that core product. Those inane and unwanted add-ons metastasize and ruin everything.

Ugh

[fluffernutter]

As long as I don't ever need to use iTunes again I'll be happy. When it came out it had about 10% of the capability of the software I was using, 200% of the bloat and 1000% of the advertising.

iTunes

[b0s0z0ku]

iTunes is ... not great. I just hope the replacement will keep the ability to play/download local music, not be chained to the "clown."

Hopefully replacement performs core functionality

[gyepi]

Let's hope the replacement will not skip in the middle of the tracks anymore, a major bug Apple is unwilling to address in iTunes for years (and removes apple discussion board forum posts if someone brings it up)!

I'm surprised marketing let them

[rsilvergun]

iTunes is one of the most recognized brands out there. It'll be difficult to maintain that brand identity when you start splitting up features.

Re:I'm surprised marketing let them

[fluffernutter]

Except it was "branded" as a music player and utility but was just really 80% a retail store.

Re:I'm surprised marketing let them

[MachineShedFred]

Other than if you start splitting off features that are seldomly used anymore, and are simply vestiges of the past.

Who uses iTunes to install apps on their phone anymore? Who uses iTunes to back up data from their phone that isn't music-related?

These functions made sense pre-iCloud (not really as it would have been nice to use bluetooth like every other phone out there, but just go with it), however they just aren't needed now, especially with over-the-air OS updates being complete since iOS 5 or so.

It's time to tear that shit out and make iTunes an application for dealing with media, like it was meant to be back when it was called SoundJam before Apple bought it and started removing features (plug-in support for non-Apple devices, for example)

Re:I'm surprised marketing let them

[wwphx]

I hate the fact that they split the apps out of iTunes: it was one-stop convenience for me. Every morning I'd update apps and podcasts, then sync my phone, and everything was updated. I refuse to have my iPhone auto-update because I like to see what is updating and downloading. So now I update apps on the weekend and download podcasts daily. Only now it looks like, well, I don't know what. I don't listen to music a lot right now, so I guess I'll have the podcast app open all the time for downloading and syncing and iTunes open when I want to listen to music?

Re:I'm surprised marketing let them

[CanadianMacFan]

I use it to back up and install updates to apps all the time. I just recently updated my home Internet to an unlimited package so I was worried about my usage. It is great for only downloading an update once and installing it to my iPhone and iPad. I haven't updated iTunes or macOS in order to keep this functionality (and because there's nothing else in the updates to really want me to update). It's also easier for me to go into iTunes and update all the apps there than go into the App Store on each device and update everything.

In addition I like having my backups on my computer, and backed up again when my computer is backed up. I don't need to have my device restored when I'm away from home. If I go on vacation I might switch to iCloud backups just in case something happens to my device but when I'm at home it's not a required feature.

Re:I'm surprised marketing let them

[beckett]

iMovie '08 was completely and abruptly redesigned from all previous iMovies. Final Cut Pro 7 was completely abandoned for FCPx. In each case, Apple said suck it up.

Based on previous behaviour, they'll act the same way to legacy iTunes users. If people want to keep using their hardware, they will have to keep up with the software changes.

Re:Thank you lord Jesus!

[geekmux]

iTunes fucking sucks ass.

Don't underestimate Apples ability to make this three times worse.

After all, no one could have predicted the consumer-raping clusterfuck that is Apple I/O.

18 year old code base - time to drop it

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple is simply dropping the 18 year old code base given it's cheaper to develop a smaller app with a minimum viable product feature set, than to just maintain the old product.

Cost in adapting iTunes to the new subscription model is also likely a big reason.

Expect it to drop support phones and iPods older than 4 years too.

All of which are cost savings, lets it reset from a too many features in a product to a much simpler product.

My guess is older iTunes, purchase a song one at a time, revenue is declining or will start declining soon.

Shortest answer: Business model changed - existing product does not fit business model

Internal answer: Nobody at Apple wants to work on a obsolete product with limited ground for artistic types to redesign, limited ground for managers to deliver resume bullet quality new features, limited ground for development managers to get their team to deliver new features.

Expect Apple, MS, Google and the like to accelerate retirement of older products.

Re: Hopefully replacement performs core functional

[ruddk]

Now, now there. Apple never removes posts in their forum. (Laughs uncontrollably)

Sorry, that's too good a death

[nospam007]

That beast deserves a long, painful death.

iPhone sync

[doconnor]

iTunes is also the application that lets you sync your iPhone and iPad. It's already confusing now that images get sent off to another application.

Re:iPhone sync

[Major Blud]

iTunes is also the application that lets you sync your iPhone and iPad

I guess that's technically true, but I have both of those devices, and haven't used iTunes for syncing them in years. iCloud takes care of that for me.

Re:iPhone sync

[omnichad]

If you have music transferred from physical media or purchased elsewhere, how do you put it on the iPhone? Now if you don't use it for music, that's perfectly understandable. I'm pretty sure that's the only syncing that still exists with iTunes now anyway other than a non-iCloud backup option.

Re:iPhone sync

[Major Blud]

Most of what I have is from Apple Music/Pandora/Spotify, if you have MP3's or ripped CD's, you could use iTunes Match to get those into iCloud, but you're right of course that you need iTunes to do that part.

Re:iPhone sync

[omnichad]

If you trust them. Haven't they been known to "match" slightly different versions of a song? I don't use i-devices, but I do meticulously maintain my metadata and album art and wouldn't want that all replaced with something worse.

Re:iPhone sync

[Major Blud]

I've been lucky so far. It definitely works better than third-party stuff from back in the day like Tune-Up or Picard.

Re:Hopefully replacement performs core functionali

[magusxxx]

Agreed. I also hope the Podcast app will let you adjust the speed of playback. The iPhone app has it. The iTunes app you need a $4.95 extension. (?!?!?!?)

Re:i feel old

[MachineShedFred]

Only if you haven't been paying attention for the last 18 years.

Marzipan apps are currently terrible

[mccalli]

They really, really do not feel like Mac apps and are very clunky. Try to manipulate a list in the Home app - it is nothing at all like the drag and drop you'd expect, it's clearly built around the idea of a long-press triggering some kind of mode, then reordering, then saying 'Done'. A phone app, in other words.

iTunes may not be everyone's favourite, but at least it's designed for a computer interface. It's also more powerful than the iOS one too, with things like smart playlists not syncing properly over to the iOS app (try a smart playlist that's dependent on another playlist - eg. all tracks from a certain playlist that are also rated above three stars - won't sync).

I hope it doesn't start a dumbing-down of the apps and a transition to a less Mac-like interface. If Apple can't be bothered to use their own native APIs and start cross-porting, why should any other developer show interest?

Apple will find a way to make it worse

[Etcetera]

iTunes has needed a haircut for ages, but I have a strong suspicion Apple will find a way to make the sum-total of these new apps somehow *worse* overall.

Hopefully they don't completely kibosh the original iTunes for a release (or five)... Given that it still is what provides legacy support for older iDevices. My iPod Classic 160G isn't going anywhere any time soon, and I'm sure a new Apple Music desktop app will have basically no support for it because it will be written by Silicon Valley 22 y/o techies who don't remember life before 4G LTE.

Exit question: What happens with the Windows version? Although I have Macs now, I went through a very long period with just Windows and Android, so I've kept my PC as my "primary" system for managing all music and taking care of synchronizing and whatnot, even as iDevices have come and gone. Hopefully nothing changes any time soon there.

Windows?

[antdude]

Will iTunes stay like this in Windows? :(