Farewell to iTunes

Apple has effectively heralded the end of iTunes by announcing the replacement by the three new apps  Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV. which will replace the pioneering music service.

Apple used its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Monday to officially announce its plans to end the Mac version of iTunes. The company will phase out its well-known media application with the introduction of OS X 10.15, code-named Catalina, which is expected to be released in September alongside the next version of iOS and the new iPhone.

There had been speculation that the tech giant was planning to shutter the music service it launched in 2001.The firm also revealed a number of new privacy measures at its annual developer conference in San Jose.

A new sign-in will be an alternative to logging into apps using social media accounts, hiding the user’s email address and data. However, the iTunes brand isn’t going away: Applee said the iTunes Store app will remain the place for iOS user to purchase music, while the Windows version of the iTunes application is living on (for now).

The announcements were made at the WWDC conference, where the tech giant outlines its software plans for the months ahead. The sun setting of iTunes was widely expected to happen with OS X 10.15, and follows Apple’s multiyear move away from a transactional digital media business toward one focused on subscriptions.