Music

RIP: iTunes Has Been Sentenced To Death

iTunes lived long enough to see itself become the villain, and now, finally, it will die.

by Amanda Yeo  4 June 2019
Apple iTunes

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iTunes will soon meet its extremely overdue end, 18 years after it first came into our lives — or 180 years in tech time. Few are mourning.

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The rumours of iTunes’ imminent demise had been circling for a while, but they were finally confirmed at Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference this morning.

This spring, Apple will take iTunes out to a nice sunny paddock filled with daffodils, give it one last heartfelt hug, and then gently euthanise it with a bolt gun.

Born on 9 January 2001 at Macworld, Apple’s San Francisco trade show, iTunes spent its early life managing music files. Aspiring to be a one stop destination for music lovers, it let users rip songs from physical CDs as well as buy them from the iTunes Store.

Four years later in 2005, Apple expanded it to include video, starting with episodes of Desperate Housewives and The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody. Later that year it also added podcasts, then books in 2010.

In 2001, iTunes’ promise of having your entire album collection collated in one easily accessible location seemed like a revelation. However, as time marched on, internet speeds improved and technology evolved, streaming services began to crop up and compete for attention. In 2007, DVD rental service Netflix branched out into streaming. In 2008, Spotify arrived.

Meanwhile, iTunes became increasingly bloated and irrelevant, gradually turning from darling to despised. It had lived long enough to see itself become the villain, users finding it had grown to become buggy, unintuitive and frustrating to use. Now it will finally die, and the cursed software will haunt our Apple gadgets no longer.

iTunes will be survived by three new apps: Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV. These apps will continue to manage your media in their parent’s stead, so you’ll still be able to access all your songs and videos. That is, if you didn’t move out of Apple’s entertainment ecosystem like everyone else five years ago.