As teased late last week, Apple has officially decided to discontinue their iTunes music service, choosing instead to break up the desktop service and offer three separate applications for music, television and podcasts.

One of the biggest questions that longtime users of iTunes had upon the initial discussion of the new service is what would happen for your existing music.

During Monday's announcement for the new macOS Catalina operating system that revealed the separate apps for Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV, it was revealed that Apple doesn't intend to let the back catalogs of their users disappear.

Technology and Telco editor at Finder, Alex Kidman, told News.com.au (as transcribed by The Sun), “iTunes as an app, whether you’re on a Mac or a PC … was trying to serve too many needs at once.” He went on to state that while Apple had yet to reveal how migration of content would take place, there is not much concern that there will be issues, adding, “That’s data that Apple already makes available to your existing iOS devices, and there’s no real reason to think that it won’t take this approach with split apps under MacOS. If you’ve got content purchased through Apple, it’ll still be on record with them and should be accessible on compatible devices. For PC users, we’ll have to wait and see what Apple’s replacements will be, but again, it’s not like Apple wants to lose consumers who have Apple Music subscriptions, or those who buy or rent movies or TV shows through Apple. That’s still a lucrative revenue source for them.”

In a press release, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, offered, “With macOS Catalina, we’re bringing fresh new apps to the Mac, starting with new standalone versions of Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and the Apple TV app," also revealing some of the other new features that included an all-new Sidecar feature that enables users to extend their Mac desktop by using their iPad as a second display or as a high-precision input device across creative Mac apps. He continued, “Users will appreciate how they can expand their workspace with Sidecar, enabling new ways of interacting with Mac apps using iPad and Apple Pencil. And with new developer technologies, users will see more great third-party apps arrive on the Mac this fall.”

Though iTunes was groundbreaking for its time, there were complaints over its functionality, something that the new Music app hopes to improve upon. The description in the press release reads: "The new Music app for Mac is lightning fast, fun and easy to use. Apple Music will help users discover great new music with over 50 million songs, playlists and music videos. And users will have access to their entire music library, whether they downloaded the songs, purchased them or ripped them from a CD. For those who like to own their music, the iTunes Music Store is just a click away."

So breathe a little easier iTunes users and get ready for the next step in your Apple music, television and podcast experiences.

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