After entertaining almost 20 years iTunes is no longer available as the cause behind this is a big software update for Macs called macOS Catalina.
Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV are three of the confirmed homes for functions currently found within iTunes on Mac and iOS.
All music stored on a user’s library will remain safe, but the way devices are synced and where content is accessed will change.
Windows users of iTunes will see no change to their service.
It’s time to bid farewell to iTunes, the once-revolutionary program that made online music sales mainstream and effectively blunted the impact of piracy. That assumes, of course, that you still use iTunes and many people no longer do. On iPhones, the functions have long been split into separate apps for music, video, and books. Mac computers follow suit Monday with a software update called Catalina.
With #macOSCatalina, your media library moves from iTunes into three new apps. Learn more about Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Podcasts, and where to find the iTunes Store: https://t.co/4ZtrsJqPU0 pic.twitter.com/j4ixG9EosR
— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) October 7, 2019
After the new macOS Catalina update (v10.15) the Apple Music will be hidden on the Mac.
Why did Apple decide to Vanish iTunes?
Apple has set apart the all-in-one iTunes in favor of separate apps for music, video and other services that will let Apple build features for specific types of media and better promote its TV-streaming and music services to help offset slowing sales of iPhones.
In the early days, iTunes was simply a way to get music onto Apple’s marquee product, the iPod music player. Users connected the iPod to a computer, and songs automatically synced simplicity unheard of at the time.
iTune Services
Apple launched its iTunes Music Store back in 2003, just two years after the iPod’s debut. With simple pricing at launch 99 cents a single, $9.99 (roughly Rs. 700) for most albums many consumers were content to buy music legally rather than seek out sketchy sites for pirated downloads.
Over time iTunes has expanded its empire to podcasts, e-books, audiobooks, movies, and TV shows. In the iPhone era, iTunes also made backups and synced voice memos. But the software got bloated to support additional functions and hence iTunes lost the ease and simplicity that gave it its charm.
And with online cloud storage and wireless syncing, it no longer became necessary to connect iPhones to a computer and iTunes with a cable.
One of the reasons behind the iTunes ban is the way people listen to music has changed, too. The US recording industry now gets 80 percent of revenue from paid subscriptions and other streaming. In the first half of 2019, paid subscriptions to Apple Music and competing services rose 30 percent from a year earlier to 61 million, or $2.8 billion (roughly Rs. 19,800 crores), while revenue from digital downloads fell nearly 18 percent to $462 million (roughly Rs. 3,300 crores).
If you are a Apple user and want to see iTunes than you have to restore it from settings. Non-subscribers will see the store as a tab, along with plenty of ways to subscribe to Apple Music.
The iTunes store for TV shows and movies will still be prominent on Macs, though now as part of the TV app. Video available to buy or rent will be mixed in with other movies and shows including exclusive offerings through Apple TV Plus.
The new Podcasts app gets a feature that indexes individual episodes so you can more easily search for actors or fads that don’t appear in the podcast’s text description. The Mac previously got separate apps for voice memos and books, including audiobooks.
The iPhone syncing and backup functions traditionally found in iTunes have been incorporated into Mac’s navigation interface, Finder, with the macOS Catalina update.