Correlating with recent rumors, Apple announced at WWDC it would drop iTunes in its next version of macOS (Catalina) and replace them with three separate apps dubbed Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple TV. Both purchased and ripped music content can be transferred over, and syncing will still be available.
Apple Music in macOS Catalina will import users’ existing music libraries from iTunes in their entirety, Apple says. That includes not just music purchased on iTunes, but rips from CDs, MP3s, and the like added from other sources. Further, the existing feature that synced users’ non-iTunes files to the cloud will continue to work, and of course, users will still be able to buy songs from Apple. Apple is not turning Apple Music into a streaming-only experience. For the most part, the end of iTunes seems to be an end in name only: key features will be retained in the Music app.
iTunes isn’t going anywhere for Windows users, however. Apple says the app will remain on Microsoft’s OS and continue receiving support, but this could very well be temporary.
Apple says users of iTunes under Microsoft Windows will not see any changes. It won’t be broken up into several apps; it will work just like it does now. However, Apple did not provide any clarification about what support will be like for future features. The company simply says that Windows users will continue to have the same experience as before and that it is not announcing any plans to end support for iTunes in Windows.