macOS 10.15 & Music app

I just read an article about a new Music app to come with 10.15 that should mimic the Music app on iOS.

Any ideas if this is intended to just replace the music player part of iTunes? Or is it supposed to replace iTunes entirely? Any ideas what we’ll be seeing to replace the syncing/backing up part of iTunes? A revival of iSync? Let’s speculate.

One thing that concerns me about the partitioning of iTunes into multiple IOS-like apps is that I see no provision for the ‘Internet Radio’ section of iTunes for playing Internet audio streams. One function of my desktop computer is to use an Internet stream to play both through my computer speakers, and, via Airplay, to a HomePod pair in my lining room. In fact, this is my primary vehicle for streaming music throughout my apartment and runs for most of the day.

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I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple felt that a) a browser can do that and b) you don’t want that anyway since there’s Apple Music.

(not that I agree with any of that)

Guilherme Rambo wrote a pretty complete article about the new music app a few weeks ago.

https://9to5mac.com/2019/05/09/music-app-macos-itunes-code/

The new standalone Music app on macOS will actually be an AppKit application, based off of iTunes. It will include many of the advanced features iTunes users are accustomed to, including things such as smart playlists, advanced library management, syncing with iPods and iOS devices, and even disc reading and burning.

This new version would be the final step in the process that started with iTunes 12.7, which was updated to focus on music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks. With new standalone apps for all media types on macOS 10.15, iTunes becomes focused on just music and gets renamed to Music, like its counterpart on iOS.

It’s possible that an older version of iTunes will be kept available for users who need extra features, as with the current version that’s available for download and includes the App Store, support for ringtones, and other legacy features.

iMazing 2 can do the syncing.

So it sounds like Music will simply be iTunes minus TV etc.

My first reaction was, well heck that’s stupid. Users will have to learn that to sync their iOS device or manage photos, they’ll have to use an app called Music. How idiotic is that? Steve would have never… Yada yada.

The immediate rebuttal is of course that that’s exactly the status quo. We go to “iTunes” to install firmware on a phone. So it’s all good, right? Well not really. iTunes grew historically. We get firmware on the phone there because that phone evolved from an MP3 player and iTunes was originally the app to manage that player because the player was built for that app. But darn, Music is a new app. This would have been the opportunity to clean up things, get rid of historical baggage, and most importantly, do it right. Make things simple and easy to understand again. But nope.

Maybe not a big surprise after all. It appears Music is not a complete new app from the ground up, or in fact based on the existing iOS Music app. Instead it’s simply a cleaned up and rebranded iTunes. There we go. Legacy after all. :wink:

I guess we’d all be grateful if iTunes -> Music didn’t follow the dumbing down we saw in Aperture -> Photos or useful Pages -> iCloud compatible Pages or useful AP Utility -> skinny AP Utility. I guess the chances of that happening are a lot smaller if they don’t attempt a rewrite from scratch. So there’s hope! :slight_smile:

Agreed on all points. Not to mention its fun to check out radio from around the country and the world . Then theres the equalizer for sound quality. I see a bad moon rising … Apple wants to turn your computer into a phone. If I wanted a phone, I’d buy a phone .

iMazing is good although I had trouble last time I used it uploading MP4 files into VLC. Anyone know why?

What was the problem? Maybe it was a VLC problem; did you try dropping them into the VLC application on your Mac?