Apple is Discontinuing iTunes

Among the announcements Apple is expected to make at the Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins on Monday, June 3rd, in San Jose, California, is the end of their iconic iTunes app, which revolutionized the music marketplace upon its introduction in 2001.

The move comes as part of Apple’s effort to make its applications consistent across its desktop computers, iPads and iPhones, Bloomberg reports. The Music app replaced iTunes on iPads and iPhones some time ago, and that app will now be unrolled on desktops along with separate TV and Podcasts apps to replace all of the functions that iTunes had been serving. Users will be able to access all of their downloaded audio files through the Music app and paid downloads will still be available. A report that surfaced last year claiming Apple would stop selling music entirely on March 31st of this year proved to be untrue.

While the shuttering of iTunes is largely symbolic in nature with much of the same functionality living on in a different app, those of us who spent hundreds of hours painstakingly organizing and labeling our mp3 collections in the early days will surely shed a tear.

Apple also plans to unveil plans for a new operating system, software updates to its Watch and iPad platforms and a number of other app updates at the developer conference next week.

[via Loudwire]