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If you are also a 90ies kid, a moment like this should remind you of when tapes got replaced by CD’s and DVD’s, later CD players got taken over by first iPods, and now iTunes – the historical virtual music platform of today, is now officially RIP.
With its unique characteristics, iTunes media player had its own library, could broadcast radio and had an explicit media store, where people purchased their favorite songs for 99 cents… Originally launched in 2001, the platform has really taken over the music world with its cosy opportunities, but time has come for it too – after 18 years of service… See the record for the memory:
What’s really happening though is Apple’s new update of Mac OS, where one of the changes, unfortunately, included the dawn of iTunes, as announced at their annual conference in the summer this year.
Don’t worry, however! There is a replacement to keep your music safe – the main features are taken out of the former app and three new apps of its own are being created – “Music”, “TV” and “Podcasts” as well as a few old ones.
Knowing how independent and in demand Apple’s stuff usually is and people stick to it, one might wonder, how come?
The platform’s popularity actually started to decrease due to the popularity of streaming, which is now ‘winning’ in sales. We can all probably agree without looking at stats – Spotify, YouTube and other pretty serious industry giants are offering a faster access, and potentially cheaper way of getting to music. Now, the stats are also telling us album downloads have decreased from 63% in 2012 to 11% in 2019, respectively.
So today we are saying goodbye to the legendary music platform that revolutionised the industry, as Apple confirmed the beginning of new era of streaming over downloads. Luckily for Apple and its fans, they launched its own streaming platform in 2015, Apple Music, which is now the leader in US. This, however means no iPod syncing with iTunes can be done and no downloads to your library from a CD – you probably will miss that for a while, but hey-ho, even the blue-chip companies have to adapt to new trends, this time dictated by their customers.
