“The big news this week is that this fall may finally be the beginning of the end for iTunes. 9to5Mac’s Gui Rambo independently confirmed that the next major version of macOS will introduce standalone Music and Podcasts apps on the Mac,” Zac Hall writes for 9to5Mac. “iTunes is expected to stick around for now, which suggests Apple’s new apps won’t include every legacy feature, but iPad-based versions of Music and Podcasts would actually introduce features to the Mac that aren’t available yet.”
“There are lots of music-related features included in iTunes that aren’t yet available in the Music app on iOS though. Some features are fairly new like Dark Mode and are expected system-wide in iOS 13 anyway. Other features are legacy features that could be missing in early versions of Music for macOS or never added,” Hall writes. “For example, the Mini Player totally relies on the concept of windowed apps that doesn’t exist on the iPad. I doubt we’ll see a special version of it just for Music for macOS at launch. Crossfades between songs is a music-specific feature on iTunes that has been missing from Music on iOS since the first iPhone. iOS 13 would be a great time to introduce the feature that’s already available on Spotify for iOS.”
“Like the Mini Player, does anyone really think we’ll see Visualizer supported on an iPad-based version of the Music app for Mac? Both features are sort of Easter eggs within iTunes and likely won’t be included on the Music app for Mac,” Hall writes. “Then there are power user features for managing your music library that iTunes supports but feel foreign to the Music app. Like viewing technical details about audio files or changing metadata manually or even viewing play counts. These features would be very welcome on the iPad, but they aren’t available yet. These could easily be saved for future versions of the Music app after the first version makes the platform leap.”
Tons more, including many screenshots, in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’d love to see iOS’ Music app get more fully-featured while Apple focuses Music and Podcasts on the Mac!
The new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps will be made using Marzipan, a process which, hopefully, has come quite a bit further than we saw with Apple’s initial ports of the News, Voice Memos, Stocks, and Home apps from iOS to macOS.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s macOS 10.15 will include standalone Music, Podcasts, and TV apps – April 10, 2019
If the iOS apps are simply ported to macOS using Marzipan, they won’t contain any of the library management features unique to iTunes. It will be a repeat of the situation when apps were removed from iTunes, so that management has to be done on each device individually. Obviously, that will work if the master library is kept in the cloud, or if the user only relies on streaming through Apple Music, but it will be a nightmare for those of us with thousands of non-Apple songs in dozens of playlists that are currently managed through iTunes and synced to multiple devices. Will our libraries be safe, and can we properly manage them?
While I agree iTunes needs to be broken down, Apple didn’t just spend all that time making a Windows Store version of the app (even though it sucks) if they planned on abandoning iTunes in its entirety. Why it has taken so long for Apple to address the “iTunes monster” is baffling. Whatever happened to “laser focused”? I love Apple. All of my devices are Apple, but anyone can see the lack of focus. We also know Apple can change course without warning. Who knows that will happen.
While I agree iTunes needs to be broken down, Apple didn’t just spend all that time making a Windows Store version of the app (even though it sucks) if they planned on abandoning iTunes in its entirety. Why it has taken so long for Apple to address the “iTunes monster” is baffling. Whatever happened to “laser focused”? I love Apple. All of my devices are Apple, but anyone can see the lack of focus. We also know Apple can change course without warning. Who knows what will happen.
I do/will not pay for streaming or subscriptions. Period. I use iTunes, not Music, not Spotify, Tidal, etc. Period.
I suppose as an old-timer, I will continue to use iTunes as long as I can because I’m quite satisfied with it when it comes to storing and playing my music files. I still have a couple of older working iPods and I find them quite useful to playback music. I also have some Chinese-branded music players that use microSD cards but they’re not nearly as good overall as iPods are.
I think I’ll continue to use iTunes for years to come unless these coming music apps are as good or much better. I’ll give them a try. I’m not going to say I won’t give them a chance. I’m only saying that there’s no immediate reason for me to dump iTunes. Fortunately, I’ve never lost any music files or metadata in iTunes for the past 20 years, it just works for me.