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Music Software Apple

Leaked Apple Email Hints at the Possible End of iTunes: Report (cultofmac.com) 145

Posted by msmash from the unconfirmed-reports dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple could kill off iTunes in the near future, a new report suggests. It cites an email that Apple reportedly wrote to people in the music industry recently, announcing the "end of iTunes LPs." The iTunes LP format was first introduced in 2009 and let publishers add interactive artwork, along with assorted iTunes Extras, with their content. The LP format never achieved great popularity. However, the fact that Apple plans to ditch iTunes LPs in 2018 potentially hints at the possibility that Apple may stop selling iTunes music downloads in the near future. The Apple email announcing the change was reportedly sent two weeks ago from an address at "The iTunes Store" and signed by "The Apple Music Team." But its existence has only been highlighted now through a report by the U.K. newspaper The Metro. "Apple will no longer accept new submissions of iTunes LPs after March 2018," the letter notes. "Existing LPs will be deprecated from the store during the remainder of 2018. Customers who have previously purchased an album containing an iTunes LP will still be able to download the additional content using iTunes Match." The news about the possible winding down of iTunes would come as no surprise to many users. Not only has iTunes been outdated for years in terms of its interface and functionality, but Apple clearly aims to move to a streaming model of music selling. Further reading: 'Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously'; Apple Says It Doesn't Know Why iTunes Users Are Losing Their Music Files; iTunes Turns 13 Today -- Continues To Be 'Awful'.
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Leaked Apple Email Hints at the Possible End of iTunes: Report More

Leaked Apple Email Hints at the Possible End of iTunes: Report

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  • Good riddance if true (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OffTheLip ( 636691 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @03:43PM (#56218389)
    It would be a favor to all of us.
    • Well, I've never bought a tune from ITunes..I rip my CD's.

      So, if iTunes goes away....and I wouldn't mind a better interface, but will there be anything left on MacOS that allows me to catalog, rip and manage MY music local?

      I don't stream much really...occasionally I'll plug the phone into the car for Amazon Prime music which comes "free" with my Prime subscription, but I don't ever see myself paying for an independent streaming only product from anyone.

      If I find something I like, I buy it....in CD which

      • There's no money in it for Apple to build a new app to rip your CDs.

        Your only hope is going to be a third party app.

        • And there are a staggering variety of third party apps that will merrily rip your CDs, catalog them for you, and make iTunes seem like the 1990s.

          Not many of them are for Macs, but there are a few.

          My music is still *my music* and Apple's not going to store it on their cloud for me. I'm going to places where cellphones don't work, there's no WiFi, and it's peaceful. I want my music there, not some metered connection to something that will track my every move.

      • I rip my own CDs (Apple Lossless, just because storage is so relatively cheap so might as well have full quality... the days of having to make sure your 128kbps MP3s sound as good as possible using LAME and EAC are long behind us although EAC is still useful for dealing with CD errors.)

        I also have a substantial AAC collection from iTunes. I learned not to trust if I can re-download songs again, so my iTunes collection gets stored on a NAS. This way, if I want to copy songs onto an Android device, it is a

      • So, if iTunes goes away....and I wouldn't mind a better interface, but will there be anything left on MacOS that allows me to catalog, rip and manage MY music local?

        That's the laugh: There have pretty much ALWAYS been alternatives to iTunes for macOS available from 3rd Parties. I happen to like iTunes; so I don't have much experience with these Applications, but I know they exist, and have for years in one form or another:

        Kodi: This was formerly the XBMC Project. It has been available on multiple platforms for years and years. It and Plex (below) are the heavy-hitters in this world, IMHO.

        https://kodi.tv/ [kodi.tv]

        Plex: Originally grew out of the XBMC Project, as a Mac-specific v

        • Not to reply to my own comment, but this Music Librarian has a nice interface, similar to the iTunes Columnar "Song Browser" View. Available for several platforms, including macOS.

          Only downside is it doesn't offer an iOS Remote (although it will Upload songs to iOS devices, which is a nice touch) :

          https://www.clementine-player.... [clementine-player.org]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 )

        plenty of 3rd party software.

        however, majority of people who have itunes installed or are forced to use it use it to update/manage/connect their ios devices, not for loading up music.

  • Buy all the music you can.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pisymbol ( 310882 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @03:46PM (#56218405)

    ...before you have to rent it

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sl3xd ( 111641 )

      Music rental is exactly what the music industry has been pushing for since at least 2000...

      They like the 'pay per play' model that is used in every streaming subscription even better. None of that "buy once, play a million times" stuff the industry had to suffer with since 1900... And it works -- Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora... even YouTube monetizes per-play.

      If they can figure out a way to charge us for every time a song plays when it gets stuck in our head, they'll do that too...

      The ultimate goal, of c

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SB5407 ( 4372273 )
        Do you have a source that says that Netflix pays per play?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by nasch ( 598556 )

          Looks like they don't: "We generally license content for a fixed fee and a defined time period with payment terms varying by agreement. "

          https://ir.netflix.com/top-inv... [netflix.com]

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by SB5407 ( 4372273 )
            I've always thought it was weird that they pay a flat fee because usually the more a work is viewed, the more money it pulls in via ticket sales, DVD sales, book sales, etc. But I see now why that would sense for them: paying a flat fee appears to make accounting easier for Netflix and they get to count content as assets. I didn't know that they did that - count content as assets.

  • "iTunes LPs" != iTunes. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kenja ( 541830 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @03:47PM (#56218407)
    I know, reading is hard, but the LPs sold on iTunes are the extra content, liner notes, etc. Not iTunes itself.

    • Re:"iTunes LPs" != iTunes. (Score:5, Funny)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @03:55PM (#56218441)

      Stop putting facts in the way of a good Apple Rant. Apple has to be Evil and do no good. Because... because... Microsoft isn't as popular anymore, and Dag-Nabbit! We need a bad guy is the the cause on why I am not happy all the time.
       

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by nomadic ( 141991 )

        But the article is suggesting Apple might do something extremely positive for humanity, i.e. eliminating a horribly designed piece of software.

      • ... and Dag-Nabbit! We need a bad guy is the the cause on why I am not happy all the time.

        That's why we have Uber.

        Perhaps they should capitalize on this. Get uniforms for their staff, like the one Raul Julia wore in the Mortal Kombat film.

      • Get off my virtual lawn. Don't care....
    • RTFA:

      " Not only has iTunes been outdated for years in terms of its interface and functionality, but Apple clearly aims to move to a streaming model of music selling."

      • Re:"iTunes LPs" != iTunes. (Score:4)

        by tk77 ( 1774336 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @04:24PM (#56218625)

        TFA doesn't provide any evidence of the discontinuation of iTunes. It's purely an opinion of the author that it could mean the end of iTunes.

        The only thing they actually report from the leaked email is the discontinuation of iTunes LP.

      • We did. The article is making the massive leap that discontinuing iTunes LPs will result in the discontinuation of iTunes itself, which is just moronic.

      • but Apple clearly aims to move to a streaming model of music selling

        Apple provides a steaming model, but I don't see how this means they clearly aim to move exclusively to a streaming model. I mean, they might be, but no evidence is provided to support this statement.

        Even if it ends up being true, that doesn't mean the article is making a sound argument.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Not to mention that they will still need an app for the streaming model to work.

      • I did read it. And the original article on metro (that cult of mac cites). Its pure speculation that because apple is removing a content submission format that barely anyone used, therefore "Apple cancelling itunes".

        Which is an utter non sequitur.

        Apple isnt going to end iTunes, its one of the most profitable parts of the business, earning apple $8.5 billion last year. Why the f**k would apple forfeit that?

        The whole story is a british tabloid making some shit up to sell news, and a bunch of other news site

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yes, the most utterly ridiculous sentence of TFS is "However, the fact that Apple plans to ditch iTunes LPs in 2018 potentially hints at the possibility that Apple may stop selling iTunes music downloads in the near future."

      The fact that they're stopping something unsuccessful hints at the possibility that they may stop something successful?

    • Re:"iTunes LPs" != iTunes. (Score:4)

      by Thruen ( 753567 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @04:09PM (#56218527)
      Look at the further reading. Just a random collection of negative stories because that's what the editor looked for. The Apple stories here are a joke, they're only meant to stir up feuds about something nobody should give a damn about: what devices other people use.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's msmash posting this, what do you really expect? They have some sort of mental issues regarding everything Apple. Did you see the "related" articles included at the end?

    • The story acknowledges this, but they don't really explain how this hints at the demise of iTunes itself. It's just stated as if one follows the other. It managed to generate enough clicks to end up on the front page of /., so I guess it worked.

    • Re:"iTunes LPs" != iTunes. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Schnapple ( 262314 ) <tomkiddNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @05:52PM (#56219143) Homepage

      I know, reading is hard, but the LPs sold on iTunes are the extra content, liner notes, etc. Not iTunes itself.

      To expand on this slightly, there's a couple of similarly named concepts people get tripped up on.

      iTunes was and is the name of the music player and organization app on Mac and Windows. It's also what Apple uses to sell people content via the iTunes Store.

      Apple has been selling full albums from day one of the iTunes Music Store. They also sell the songs individually for varying amounts - usually $0.99/pop, though after some label finagling they also have $0.69 and $1.29 price points.

      The record industry has used the term "LP" for many years to refer to a full length album to be sold at full price. The term comes from "Long Play" and it's a holdover from the early phonograph days. The record industry also uses the term "EP", for "Extended Play" and despite the naming it's the term they use for a smaller, shorter album that sells at a reduced price (the etymology comes from the fact that it's extended compared to a single).

      Some artists don't like their albums to be purchased song-by-song and notable examples like Pink Floyd were slow to adapt for that reason.

      "iTunes LP" was a format idea Apple came up with. The idea was to both provide incentive to purchase full albums as well as recreate some of the look/feel of albums with liner notes, etc. They borrowed the term "LP" to invoke the notion of it being a more substantial thing than just buying the album. I believe it was designed to help you envision buying an LP record (i.e., gatefold cover, lyric sheet, etc.)

      Like a number of half baked Apple ideas it never really got the attention it needed and it never really got used much. So they're phasing it out.

      But so everyone is clear:

      • iTunes, the application, is not going anywhere.
      • The iTunes Store is not going anywhere.
      • The iTunes Store is still going to sell whole albums just like it always has
      • Even if Apple did want everyone to be an Apple Music subscriber, they still use iTunes the application and the iTunes Store sell tons of other things like movies and TV shows.
      • iTunes LP, a technique and format for packaging certain albums with extra digital materials, is being phased out. That's what the memo is about. That's what the story got wrong.

      It is true that Apple does name things somewhat confusingly, with most product offerings having some combination of "iTunes", "iCloud" or other words and it can be tricky to make sure you're referring to the right thing. But the notion that someone could take a memo about the iTunes LP digital music format being phased out and extrapolate it to Apple is finally killing off the main program they have all their users tied in to is just comical.

      • It seems to me that Apple was over-thinking this LP business, and the record companies, as usual, weren't thinking at all.

        While I don't use Apple products, I have bought quite a few albums online from places like Amazon and Google. I could never understand why the record companies couldn't simply throw in a .pdf of the CD booklet along with full album sales. It's not like they would have to do any extra work to support this; the booklets are already created for physical sales. As it is, you get absolutely z

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by myid ( 3783581 )

          If they would just add the .pdf booklets ... I guess at least Apple realized that this is an issue, but true to form, they had to invent a new locked-in proprietary format even though a perfectly adequate solution already exists.

          You can get pdf booklets with some iTunes purchases. I have pdf booklets with a few of my iTunes albums. As this article [techwalla.com] states,

          The iTunes Store offers a "digital booklet" with the purchase of many complete albums. The booklet provides a PDF version of the paper booklet insert you would receive if you bought the album as a CD. ...
          Most digital booklets from iTunes are available in PDF format. ... Double-clicking the booklet will activate your default PDF reader, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader on a PC or Preview on a Mac, and open the file. ... You will then be able to view the contents of the booklet on your computer and even print it if desired.

  • What will replace the local iPhone synchronization features if iTunes dies? BTW - don't confuse "iTunes LP" with "iTunes Music" -- one is a specific subset of music. Basically a more-expensive bundled album vs individual tracks.

    • What will replace the local iPhone synchronization features if iTunes dies?

      Exactly. If I want to copy a several-dozen .MP3s from our PC into a playlist on my wife's phone, how do I do that if iTunes is gone?

      ...and please don't say "you'll be upload them to the cloud." I shouldn't need to eat up bandwidth and route traffic between Vancouver and Cupertino simply to copy data between two devices 10 inches apart.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        Exactly. If I want to copy a several-dozen .MP3s from our PC into a playlist on my wife's phone, how do I do that if iTunes is gone?

        Buy your wife a phone not made by Apple as a gift.

        • Buy your wife a phone not made by Apple as a gift.

          I have an Android Samsung Galaxy S5 - But my wife's iPhone is employer-supplied, so she can't easily switch.

      • "I shouldn't need to eat up bandwidth and route traffic between Vancouver and Cupertino simply to copy data between two devices 10 inches apart."

        I shouldn't be so quick to broadcast that sort of obvious nonsense to the world citizen. Just keep in mind that without profits there is no progress, and that progress is the only reason for your continued existence. Next, you'll probably be asking questions like where it is, exactly, that you are progressing toward.

  • Two sentences to see the headline is bunk. (Score:5, Informative)

    by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @04:01PM (#56218471)

    Apple could kill off iTunes in the near future, a new report suggests. It cites an email that Apple reportedly wrote to people in the music industry recently, announcing the "end of iTunes LPs."

    That's all I had to read to realize this article was submitted by an idiot. "iTunes" the music application/media store portal is NOT the same thing as "iTunes LPs". All they are doing is getting rid of a special content-addition option for album sales on the music store that let publishers include digital version of the booklets that normally accompany physical CDs, containing linear notes, photos, and other printed content from the band.

    • The music category is a bit special in itunes, its the only place itunes lets you store audio video and pdf files (maybe epubs too) recent itunes behaviour has been to rip pdfs and epubs out of itunes and into ibooks. with the content hidden in a directory with a name like hghgdykkf73y7y. rather than Books/author/title thats just too easy to use. The only way to avoid this is rip ibooks out of the os. The only way to put ibooks back is to reinstall the os...

      This really sucks since i store itunesmedia on

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        This really sucks since i store itunesmedia on a nas thats backed up every two hours with rsync. precisely to avoid having duplicate files everywhere. I do not care to have my files backed up via icloud and rented back to me.

        Are the filenames being rotated around by iTunes on a regular basis or something? I'm having trouble seeing how this would cause "duplicate files". I have my iTunes library being synced to my NAS, too, and while the iTunes library files get replaced regularly, the only other file changes are actual music that has been added, removed, or changed location from me editing tags on the source machine (I let iTunes organize it by tag info). The linking of the actual LP content file to the music album should be in

        • I keep a central library on my nas so i don't need to duplicate it across machines ibooks will pull all the books out of the nas and put them onto my laptop, i use several machines and duplicating my library because i have no central resource any more is unacceptable.

          Its a shame as ibooks is quite good as a reading app but i will not have it mess with my data.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by beckett ( 27524 )
      That common sense didn't stop someone else from posting the obligatory "and good riddance" to the /. clickbait.

    • Right. They still make money selling music, but didn't with this LP thing. Whoopdee friggin' doo. Slow news day?

  • for my kid. I used to buy about $120/yr worth of iTunes cards for her. Now I pay $5/month for Apple Music. She's in college so I get a discount, and once she graduates she's on her own :).

  • Clickbait. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cheviot ( 248921 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @04:11PM (#56218543)

    There is literally nothing in the article to suggest that because Apple will stop selling their proprietary special featured albums that they will stop selling music all together.

    It's clickbait, nothing more.

  • I just confirmed that iTunes is not going away. iTunes music revenue is still growing as of Q3 2017 at a clip of 20%. 99 cents for a track is pretty reasonable. So iTunes is profitable and growing. iTunes LP (whatever that is) is going away, I think this is the interactive content and cute liner notes that typically come with CDs. YouTube is currently the go to place for extra content and as a heavy iTunes user, I did't know iTunes LP existed, so it must be hidden well.

  • Quite a leap... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by zarmanto ( 884704 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @04:39PM (#56218731) Journal

    That argument is quite a leap beyond logic and reason. It sounds a little bit to me like if someone had tried to suggest that Apple was abandoning removable media when they started shipping the iMac with no internal floppy drive. Removing one largely unused and/or obsolete feature does not suggest that the entire product is going to be killed.

    Mind you, as buggy as iTunes is, it seems likely that this particular leap really boils down to wishful thinking from Apple's biggest fans and/or biggest critics -- which are often one-and-the-same people, by the way -- but I'm afraid there are far too many things which still require iTunes, for it to be discontinued entirely, this early in the game.

  • However, the fact that Apple plans to ditch iTunes LPs in 2018 potentially hints at the possibility that Apple may stop selling iTunes music downloads in the near future.

    No. Just. No.

  • 2 + 2 = 128 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Shemmie ( 909181 ) on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @05:11PM (#56218915)

    iTunes LP format has failed... so Apple may pull iTunes?

    Google Wave failed - Google to leave the advertising industry?

  • Apple: iTunes LP doesn't make us money, never really did, so we'll ditch it
    News hack: OMG Apple is exploding!

    How does that even hint at Apple stopping sales of music?

  • There is a reason that blog is nicknamed "C*nt of Mac"

    Its like you know, how Ford closed up shop when they stopped selling the Model-T

    The US in unique it seems in that the total IQ of the country remains the same even as the population has grown. You have have more and more really stupid people. and these blogs cater for that crowd because they are the majority.
  • I dont have any inside knowledge, nor any further "evidence" than TFA, but i do think that it's likely that iTunes will be deprecated, in favor of Apple Music, with more iTunes like features.

  • What a moronic article. The actual news is simply that Apple will be deprecating their _album_ format. This is not surprising, because digital singles have always outsold digital albums, and it's far from clear that the added album content increased album sales. I'd give Apple credit for at least trying to make digital albums interesting, but the reality is that for the majority of albums there are only one or two songs that are really popular, so only dedicated fans buy entire albums, and they'd probably b

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • other than those Irish songs they forced on me, I've never paid for a danged song.

    Does this mean they're going to do away with webcasts too? What will I fill my Rio Clear MP3 player with?

  • âoeHowever, the fact that Apple plans to ditch iTunes LPs in 2018 potentially hints at the possibility that Apple may stop selling iTunes music downloads in the near futureâ How is not supporting a single format (LPs include extras above and beyond music - thatâ(TM)s what is being retired) a hint that they will cease all sales and move exclusively to subscriptions? Holy shit thatâ(TM)s stupid.

  • I just had to weigh in here, because every time there's a story about iTunes, i read how much people hate it. Even at work, there has been one or two occasions where someone has talked about iTunes and someone else jumps in showing their disgust of the product.

    Apparently there is something wrong with me. I've used iTunes since my first iPod in 2004, on PC. Yes, PC. In the early versions there was a bug that instead of ejecting the CD unmounted it. Makes perfect sense on *nix, but doesn't translate that we

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