Say goodbye to iTunes… and hello to three new apps

The iTunes Store is alive and well in macOS 10.15, but access to content changes

cOntrary tO SOme rumors, Apple isn’t closing the iTunes Store. But it is removing the iTunes app, first introduced as an MP3 player utility in 2001.

Software chief Craig Federighi joked that everyone wanted iTunes to do more, so Apple had considered adding a calendar, email app and web browser. The point being, of course, that iTunes already served too many purposes, making it confusing to use. So it was high time to split its functions out.

Most strikingly, iTunes’ once central purpose of syncing and backing up connected iOS devices — now redundant for most users, since we back up to iCloud and download content directly — moves to the Finder. Connected devices appear as a drive, to which you drag tracks. Like a few other WWDC announcements, this might have you wondering why you weren’t allowed to do it that way years ago.

iTunes’ other features are divided up between three new apps: Music, TV, and Podcasts. That’s superficially similar to the existing arrangement on iOS, but while the Podcasts app is a port of the iOS version, Music is still basically the iTunes app, with much of its extra functionality intact. The Apple Music service is accessed here if you’re a subscriber, but your iTunes purchases and tracks from other sources, including ripped CDs, also still appear in the app. The iTunes Store is available here and in the other two apps; there’ll be no separate iTunes Store app for macOS.

TV TIMES

The new TV app brings playback of purchased 4K videos to the Mac, but only on 2018 and later hardware. This is a digital rights management (DRM) restriction: many older Macs can play 4K (and higher) video files, just not from the iTunes Store. The iTunes app will stay on Macs not upgraded to Catalina, and Windows users are stuck with it.