Apple iTunes' days are reportedly numbered, with chief executive Tim Cook looking to announce the retirement of the revolutionary multimedia software next week.
iTunes, the media player and store that led the way in popularising mp3 downloads and the digital storage of music, was launched in 2001.
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However, it has recently been garnering criticism for moving away from its original music-based purpose and into films, television, games, podcasts, ebooks, and other features.
Now it looks to be killed off, with Bloomberg reporting that its retirement will be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California on Monday (local time).
Apple will reportedly replace it with three apps - Music, TV, and Podcasts - for Mac, similar to its decentralised strategy on its iOS devices. It's unknown what will happen to movie downloading.
The Music app will take over for most of iTunes features, though as streaming becomes more popular, it has been speculated Apple will end mp3 downloads and focus only on its AppleMusic subscription services.
iTunes has been struggling to keep music downloads popular. In 2018, the RIAA said streaming accounts for 75 percent of the United States music industry's revenue.
The future of backing up and syncing devices, which iTunes allows, is also up in the air after Bloomberg's report. It's believed the new apps will take over some of those features as well, but Apple could also move towards cloud-only backup with its iCloud system.
Newshub.
