Apple Announces Split with iTunes
On Monday the company shared the news during its worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California.
After 18 years it’s safe to say it’s an end of an era and the start of a new one. Apple just announced its split with iTunes, which it will be replaced by Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV. During the conference, Apple announced the exciting things that are in store and laid to rest a misapprehension that the iTunes store (where users purchase songs and albums for download) would be going away in favor of Apple Music (the companies streaming service). Streaming made up 75% of the music industry’s revenue last year.
The iTunes Store will remain as will the music that people bought it from. However, Apple did address a long-running complaint from users of the iTunes desktop app, mainly that it’s trying to be too many things at once. At Monday’s conference, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, joked about this. “Customers love iTunes and everything it can do,” he said before sarcastically asking “But if there’s one thing we hear over and over is ‘can iTunes do more?’
Apple has seen a decline in iPhone sales due to a confluence of factors including fewer buyers in China and an extended upgrade cycle. The company has been rebranding itself as a streaming-entertainment provider and it has made no secret of looking to grow its services businesses including the Apple Music streaming service a forthcoming TV streaming service and a magazine subscription service. We can’t wait to see what comes next and how it will change the way we use their products.
