Apple Music links shifting away from iTunes domain, further signaling death of app

AppleInsider · June 2, 2019 4:58PM

Links to Apple Music tracks are gradually migrating to a Music domain, lending more weight to the theory that iTunes will gradually be put to pasture.

First spotted by developer Craig Hockenberry, at some point in the last week, Apple started migrating the domains away from an iTunes.Apple.com to music.apple.com.

I haven't seen it reported elsewhere, but as of last weekend all https://t.co/tCyWJ9I1D3 links redirect to https://t.co/c1nzdCWhSp -- a likely indicator that the brand is done (the app will be fine for those of us who need it.)
-- Craig Hockenberry (@chockenberry)
June 2, 2019

This does not appear have been a one-time shift. While investigating the situation on Sunday morning, AppleInsider found tracks that were still hosted on the itunes.apple.com domain. Since this morning's search, some of the tracks we were keeping an eye on have since moved to music.apple.com.

At present, application links and movies are still on the iTunes domain.

Apple is currently believed to be separating out its Music and Podcasts elements from iTunes on macOS, with an app for TV also touted, taking them out of the all-in-one iTunes app completely.

Beyond predictions, and alleged screenshots, this is second firm signal that iTunes may not exist in the next version of macOS. Apple has also purged social media content related to iTunes on Facebook and Instagram.

AppleInsider will be reporting live throughout WWDC 2019, starting with the keynote on Monday, June 3. Get every announcement as it happens by downloading the AppleInsider app for iOS, and by making sure to follow us on YouTube, Twitter @appleinsider, Facebook and Instagram.

bitmod · June 2, 2019 5:23PM

This wouldn’t be concerning to people if Music wasn’t 10x worse than iTunes.
Vox is a great alternative.

lkrupp · June 2, 2019 5:29PM

bitmod said:

This wouldn’t be concerning to people if Music wasn’t 10x worse than iTunes.
Vox is a great alternative.

Nonsense, blathering nonsense.

racerhomie3 · June 2, 2019 5:32PM

bitmod said:

This wouldn’t be concerning to people if Music wasn’t 10x worse than iTunes.
Vox is a great alternative.

What are you talking about? Both music & iTunes are fine.

loopless · June 2, 2019 6:11PM

You realize all these headlines about the death of iTunes is causing a media panic that everyone is going to lose their music. It’s sort of funny how the non tech media is getting this so wrong. They are totally clueless that all Apple is doing is breaking up one monolithic app into multiple apps..

kenaustus · June 2, 2019 6:12PM

I'm not concerned about individual apps replacing iTunes as long as the music I've purchased (via iTunes or physical CDs) is still available, Playlists are intact and sync with my iPhone still works.

I do seem to remember that iTunes was getting a bit con tested and that Apple needed to do something about it. Looks like they have.

IreneW · June 2, 2019 6:17PM

racerhomie3 said:

bitmod said:

This wouldn’t be concerning to people if Music wasn’t 10x worse than iTunes.
Vox is a great alternative.

What are you talking about? Both music & iTunes are fine.

Music is OK, iTunes definitely not. Glad to see it go.

1st · June 2, 2019 6:44PM

App should be diminishing and move over for Web based or cloud based once 5G in place. However, on board some key application should come with handset, especially with swift hard coded some in place, such as Gps map, camera, etc. It would improve security and minimise memory storage and if design properly, unify and simplify UI. Glad to know the new era is coming. IMHO.

Phobos7 · June 2, 2019 7:42PM

It’s about time. Keeping music separate is pretty broad though and it makes sense to keep podcasts included with music. Simplifying the user interface has and always is a great idea. Making the controls a bit more discernible is a good idea too.

bitmod · June 2, 2019 7:53PM

racerhomie3 said:

bitmod said:

This wouldn’t be concerning to people if Music wasn’t 10x worse than iTunes.
Vox is a great alternative.

What are you talking about? Both music & iTunes are fine.

No they aren't. Music is awkward as all hell, and iTunes is in such rough shape Apple is putting it out of its misery.

For those who think it's fine... you've just grown accustomed to them. Try some others so you can at least be objective.

I expect they will have redesigned iTunes for desktop.

Doesn't matter much to me anymore as I've gone the streaming route and have my iTunes library integrated into Bluesound.

Tidal, Spotify, iTunes, Tunein, online radio... everything in one location.

The only reason to open iTunes these days is to load an old iPod with songs or backup photos off the phone.

Metriacanthosaurus · June 2, 2019 7:58PM

bitmod said:

racerhomie3 said:

bitmod said:

This wouldn’t be concerning to people if Music wasn’t 10x worse than iTunes.
Vox is a great alternative.

What are you talking about? Both music & iTunes are fine.

No they aren't. Music is awkward as all hell, and iTunes is in such rough shape Apple is putting it out of its misery.
For those who think it's fine... you've just grown accustomed to them. Try some others so you can at least be objective.

I expect they will have redesigned iTunes for desktop.
Doesn't matter much to me anymore as I've gone the streaming route and have my iTunes library integrated into Bluesound.
Tidal, Spotify, iTunes, Tunein, online radio... everything in one location.

The only reason to open iTunes these days is to load an old iPod with songs or backup photos off the phone.

You’re off in left field by yourself. The design of the new Music app for Mac that replaces iTunes has already leaked. The new TV app is another part of the replacement for the video side.

the monk · June 2, 2019 8:10PM

bitmod said:

racerhomie3 said:

bitmod said:

This wouldn’t be concerning to people if Music wasn’t 10x worse than iTunes.
Vox is a great alternative.

What are you talking about? Both music & iTunes are fine.

No they aren't. Music is awkward as all hell, and iTunes is in such rough shape Apple is putting it out of its misery.
For those who think it's fine... you've just grown accustomed to them. Try some others so you can at least be objective.

Well, in my objective outlook, Music was awkward when they first introduced it. I hated it. I cancelled after four months. Music was a bunch of people who sat around a table who decided to cram as much features into the app without talking to the UI designers, and then finally let designers hired on Fiverr to take care of the rest.

But it has much improved, it’s very easy to work with. I don’t need to think about how to use the software, I just listen to what I want.

lkrupp · June 2, 2019 10:18PM

loopless said:

You realize all these headlines about the death of iTunes is causing a media panic that everyone is going to lose their music. It’s sort of funny how the non tech media is getting this so wrong. They are totally clueless that all Apple is doing is breaking up one monolithic app into multiple apps..

Yep, Rene Ritchie even put out a special Vector podcast to reassure people that all their movies and music won’t be destroyed or deleted. The click bait is spreading like the herpes virus.

bobolicious · June 2, 2019 10:32PM

...I find myself asking what are the benefits (for us users) to what seems app fragmentation...?

I'm still clinging to iTunes 12.6.x with central download and distribution to various iOS devices as seems logical (to me),
and I prefer to buy music directly ei. support artists and lossless rip CD, or lossless download, and have never bought an iTune nor even tried the free Apple Music subscription...

Has macOS refined to the point where 'upgrades' are essentially 'rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic' as it has been said...?

kevin kee · June 2, 2019 11:06PM

bitmod said:

This wouldn’t be concerning to people if Music wasn’t 10x worse than iTunes.
Vox is a great alternative.

But it's a concern to me because your recommendation Vox is 1000 times worse than Music.

polymnia · June 3, 2019 12:35AM

is this why Apple Music hasn’t worked on my Sonos system all day?

JFC_PA · June 3, 2019 12:50AM

I honestly never have been bothered by iTunes. It worked for my modest needs: four thousand (4362...)or so tracks added to sporadically.

MacPro · June 3, 2019 3:02AM

iTunes will be replaced seamlessly with several new apps that are Marzipan I suspect. The media spin that Apple is 'closing iTunes' as if all it offers won't continue in another new and improved form is so obviously click bate.

chasm · June 3, 2019 4:25AM

kenaustus said:

I'm not concerned about individual apps replacing iTunes as long as the music I've purchased (via iTunes or physical CDs) is still available, Playlists are intact and sync with my iPhone still works.

Well:
1. Don't forget you can back up your iTunes library (it's just a database controlling the song files, so you can also just back up the individual music files if you prefer), both the music you have purchased and the stuff you've added. You should have been backing this stuff up for ages, obviously ... but also see the next point.

2. Your music, purchased music, playlists and sync aren't going anywhere. The only question not already answered about this is local sync, but I do not think that is going away. Details tomorrow or shortly thereafter, I'm sure.

chasm · June 3, 2019 4:29AM

Phobos7 said:

It’s about time. Keeping music separate is pretty broad though and it makes sense to keep podcasts included with music. Simplifying the user interface has and always is a great idea. Making the controls a bit more discernible is a good idea too.

You've misread any other articles you've seen about this. Music will be for locally-stored and streaming music, and (perhaps) audiobooks. Podcasts will be for podcasts. TV app will be for movies/tv shows. If they follow the iOS model, there will still be an app called iTunes, but it will be the store -- just as it is on iOS.

I suspect the "Internet Radio" component of existing iTunes will be gone (lots of third-party radio apps already exist to take up that slack, though). Don't know for sure about syncing but IMO it is high time that was just incorporated directly into macOS.

kendog52404 · June 3, 2019 4:47AM

Part of the worry over iTunes going away are for people like me, who run iTunes on Windows machines, and what they plan on doing for Windows, keep iTunes, separate them there as well, drop support for Windows, or what. I hope the keep support, with whatever software setup, for at least Windows 10, since it's what I'm running, myself. While I doubt they would make UWP Apps for Apple Music and Apple TV(?), I could see them putting those two new apps into the Windows Store, plus desktop, maybe on Windows, and on MacOS, and the other devices like Amazon Fire Devices, likely Android, and so on.

I could also see them taking advantage of the new apps, and changing the TV and Movie Content to H.265/HEVC instead of the current H.264/MP4. They've updated the all of devices, so I'm pretty sure even the newer iPad Minis and iPod Touches are now running with CPUs that have hardware support for H.265, plus of course, I think the various MACs are all now using CPUs that have native support with H.265.

Apple Music links shifting away from iTunes domain, further signaling death of app

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