We have entered the last days of iTunes as we know it
When Apple introduced iTunes on January 9, 2001, it was just a music manager for Mac users. Over time, the app became more powerful and useful and became an essential part of the operation of the iPod. The big breakthrough came in April 2003 when it was finally made available for Windows machines. That’s when things exploded.
It had a good run, but the end is sight.
ITunes was long ago integrated into Apple Music and hasn’t been available as a standalone program for Mac users for years. If you’re on a Windows machine, though, Apple continued to support iTunes because Apple Music wasn’t available for PCs. The latest stable release (12.12.7.1) was pushed on December 15. That may be the end of the road of iTunes.
Apple Music and Apple TV apps are now available in the Microsoft Store, meaning that PC users can engage with those programs as Mac users do. Apple hasn’t said when they’re going to launch fully-featured versions of the apps, but this is certainly an incremental (but still major) step.
Yes, PC users have had access to the Apple Music web app, which is okay. But as for iTunes on the PC? It’s going away.
Meh.
I gave up on iTunes a few years ago when it told me I couldn’t upload any more music. I kept loading my CDs into my library, and one day got the message that too much of my music wasn’t purchased through iTunes.
Well yeah, I have like 30 years of physical music collected.
So that’s enough of that. I make sure my home stereo is in fighting form, and I’ve added CD players to my vehicles where possible.