Apple Quietly Updates iTunes, Adds Social Features to Apple Music
The revolution will not be televised.
Today, Apple launched a bevy of products at their annual Keynote event. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, Apple Watch 3, Apple TV 4K, and iPhone X were all in attendance, with some pretty impressive specs to boot.
Noticeably absent was an update on music. Aside from mentioning the new Apple Watch’s compatibility with Apple Music, Apple presenters went a whole two hours without mentioning music.
I suppose Apple is now becoming a health/lifestyle brand and the pettiness of the music industry has grown old, but I yearn for the days when Steve Jobs would exchange angry emails with music executives because the industry didn’t make logical sense. Even if Steve then proceeded to bring U2 up on stage for the obligatory performance, it felt like he was fighting for us. I left today’s Keynote in awe of the new iPhones, but disheartened with no new music updates.
Then I noticed a notification in my App Store: at last, an update to iTunes!
Apple has updated iTunes with a subtle return to form: back to the music. With all the branding fragmentation between iTunes and Apple Music in the last few years, it’s been hard to discern where my music library lives, where I download, where I stream, and where (if at all) I share music with other listeners.
Today’s iTunes 12.7 update makes that a little more clear. They’ve removed the iOS App Store and syncing on iTunes, which means less clutter and more disk space for the app.
More significantly, Apple Music has finally launched some social features for Apple Music Connect. Upon updating, you can share playlists and favorites on your profile, follow your friends’ profiles, and see what others are listening to.
This isn’t a novel idea — Spotify has been doing social for years — but it gives me hope for a more democratized music platform where playlists and user-generated content are king for discovery.
It’s not surprising Apple didn’t make a stink about the new features, given the painful memories of iTunes Ping (2010–2012) which even Mr. Jobs had a hard time presenting.
Apple Music is still a ways away from becoming my streaming service of choice, but they might be headed in the right direction.
(See the whole list of iTunes changes here).
