PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic iTunes expected to announce discontinuing streaming service

Watching the news just now, they say that Apple are expected to announce terminate their iTunes streaming service. Did I hear correctly?

Tony
Edit shutting to terminate which is what the scroll on tv says

Surprised it took this long. It’s redundant with Apple Music.

Here is an article on Apple’s plans

Looks like they are discontinuing iTunes (not their music streaming service which is Apple Music) and replacing it with specific apps that will provide the functionality that iTunes used to provide. I, for one avid iPhone user, can’t remember the last time I used iTunes. Won’t miss it

I never liked iTunes and as soon as alternative download sites that allowed you to buy mp3's and not have that app that irritated me so much, I abandoned iTunes and never looked back.

The problem I had with iTunes is the same problem I have with all my Apple products, I don't have complete control - Apple wants to tell me what to do, where to put things, and so forth. Some people like that (there is more than one right way to do things) but I don't.

So RIP iTunes, like so many other things (Real Audio, Dr.T's Sequencer, Mindspring, Mosaic, Netscape, etc.) your time came and went. You are part of our history, your contribution lives in the products that followed, and we are both thankful you were here and happy to put you to rest. (cue the funeral march from Lohengrin here)

Notes

The first thing I learned with iTunes on my PC is where they stored the music I bought. Then I moved the files to a place of my choice. I'm still doing it that way.

I did the same thing, but when I found I could buy the same songs via Amazon and a few other places already in mp3 format with the option to save them where I wanted the first time, I deleted iTunes.

You can do that on Windows OS but not on iOS.

For managing my iPod I used an aftermarket iTunes substitute that allowed more flexibility. I don't remember what it was called, because my iPod died years ago and I got a digital Walkman. It uses a drag and drop method in Windows File Explorer which to me is much easier. Plus the Walkman sounds better (it has EQ options) and they don't even make iPods anymore.

Insights and incites by Notes

I do much the same, including a separate player and trying iTunes substitute programs.

I did not know you can't save the iTunes songs to another place on a Mac.

I’m assuming the iTunes Store will remain. That’s one of the best things about the Apple world.

Same situation here. I used to use iTunes all the time on PC and shifted to Amazon over the years.

I only use iTunes to manage my now very old iPod Classic (160GB) that still works (and I'm getting ready to put a new battery in it). Otherwise, I download MP3's from Amazon, as they are all DRM-free. I don't know about Apple today, but they used to not be DRM-free, which limited where you could play them.

On my computer, I either play the music using MediaMonkey (I have the "gold" license, which was not expensive and is lifetime and gives you additional capabilities), or for quick plays, I still use WinAmp.

On my smart phone, I have a 256GB Micro SD card that stores all my music collection and I play back using either the Android Music app or another app called PowerAmp.

If I want to stream music, I subscribe to Spotify (versus Pandora, because I like to specify an artist and just listen to that artist or listen to specific albums). The paid subscription lets you listen to albums in order, rather than randomized order (the Beatles Abbey Road album does not play well randomized).

I too am surprised this took so long - I honestly assumed it would've happened earlier. I personally haven't used iTunes in a good 5 or 6 years so maybe I'm just out of touch.

Understood there. I used to burn all my song downloads from iTunes to CD so I could de-DRM them. I always used MM Gold too to get all the attributes and thumbnails back into the mp3s and to keep my music collection clean.

I just downloaded Music Monkey. Looks promising. Thanks for the tip.

I can't on my iPad. I don't have a Mac desktop or laptop anymore. I'm not sure if you can move them on a Mac computer or not.

My last Mac died, and I haven't needed to replace it. I like the standardization and availability of apps for Windows better. It's not necessarily better or worse, just easier for my brain than the Mac OS.

I bought file managers for my iPad, and their function is extremely limited. I can't move pictures or music. The OS determines where to put them. Apple wants to be the boss, and I figure it's my computer, I should be the boss

I'm not a streaming person, I like to own what I like and when I buy downloads, I also store them on either CD or Flash media so if my HD crashes, I don't lose my music.

Insights and incites by Notes

I hope this doesn't mean that the iTunes app will be gone on my Mac and that I will loose all my recordings and not be able to sync my songs to my iPod touch.

That's why I don't do Mac anymore. They didn't give me complete control of all my files.

Notes

You can use switch audio file converter software to convert the format.

Welp, that sucks. That's literally how I sync up my iPod and buy a lot of my music. That being said tho, I know this is change coming in Catalina (at least if I've read accurate information), and they're splitting their music, tv, and whatever else it was that they sold on there in to separate apps. So iTunes will be getting replaced with a new music app. It's probably likely that they'll have a way to transfer your content to the new app, but I'm not sure what that looks like. All I've read is that they "don't want to lose their catalog of past customers". Not sure what that means yet, but as a person still holding on to one of the first generations of an iPod who basically keeps it as a musical diary and uses a Windows computer, I'm curious to see how this will unfold. I know a lot of my friends use it to host their PodCasts, so not sure if they'll have a separate app for that now or not as well.

Many years go, when MIDI was new, I used a hardware sequencer and made 300 backing tracks for my duo. I saved them all in the proprietary file data and was gigging with it.

In the meantime a Standard MIDI File format was introduced. It didn't apply to my old sequencer.

Then one day my old sequencer died and I lost 300 songs. I re-sequenced as many as I needed to gig with on my Atari computer as soon as I could, and about 200 never got re-sequenced, as new songs became more important.

That taught me a lesson, if there is a standard, use the standard. And that is one reason why I shy away from Apple products. They like their own self-contained world and for many things shun the standards of the industry to make things exclusively Apple in an effort to trap you into their ecosystem (as they call it). Once firmly entrenched in Apple, if something happens, you simply are S.O.L.

Now I did all my replacement MIDI files on my Atari computer in Master Tracks Pro format, but saved a copy in Standard MIDI File format (SMF).

Eventually my Atari died, I went PC for my main computer and a Mac just to make sure my BiaB aftermarket styles and songs were compatible.

Atari died, Mac went from Motorola CPUs to IBM CPUs and my SMFs survived. Some software and files I did on the Mac didn't make the cut (I was wise enough not to do anything on the Mac).

Mac went to OSX (It followed OS9 but rebranded so everyone says "oh ess sex")

As a software author, I paid an annual subscription for Apple pro tech help. One day my old Mac was getting flaky, so I called Apple, and the saleswoman sold me a big, beautiful eMac. I wanted a laptop but she assured me BiaB wouldn't run on it (that was a lie).

A couple of weeks later Apple announced they were changing to Intel CPUs and the old will be obsolete. My brand new, couple of weeks old eMac that the lousy *%*#)( saleswoman dumped on me to get rid of old stock was essentially soon to be a doorstop. I'm sure she knew of the change and was given bonuses for getting rid of what will soon be orphans.

That was the last Mac computer I ever bought. The only thing Mac I own now is an iPad and all I use it for is couch surfing.

I tried to transfer pictures from my PC to the iPad to bring to a friend, and wouldn't you know it, even with the expensive USB to Firewire plug, I couldn't transfer the pictures without iTunes. I used DropBox and that took about forever as my Internet connection is slow.

So until Apple decides to join the rest of the world with cross-platform standards, I will not buy another Apple product. I was burned by non-standards twice.

Hit me once, shame on you. Hit me twice, shame on me. It ain't gonna happen a third time.

My advice is to get your files off iTunes ASAP and copy them to something standard as mp3 files and back them up in an external flash drive. Don't save them in an exclusive Apple format, you might lose them.

Insights and incites by Notes