Apple is Killing iTunes…and Frankly, I’m Terrified

Back in Sept. 2014, I opened my Apple iTunes application one morning only to find U2’s new album, Songs of Innocence, was now part of my music collection. I hadn’t purchased the album, hadn’t listened to any tracks prior to its appearance, hadn’t even tried to contact Bono via social media to ask when the band was releasing new music. Note: I have done the latter with other artists; I’m still waiting for Courtney Barnett to respond.

No, the album just APPEARED. And I wasn’t special. Apple attached it to iTunes accounts by default, meaning millions of users who, like me, store their music on iTunes, now had 11 more songs in their catalogues. The experiment proved two points:

1. Songs of Innocence kind of sucked.

2. Apple can control anybody’s iTunes account.

Which is why I’m positively terrified of Apple’s recent announcement to phase out iTunes on Catalina, its upcoming operating system. In short, the company is killing iTunes. And I am imploring Apple to reconsider.

Despite Apple’s assurances that my 4,057-song library is safe and will simply “migrate” to the new Apple Music app, I’m beyond skeptical. If Apple can randomly make music appear, it can certainly make it disappear as well. For all I know, Bono is probably on the phone with Tim Cook right now, wondering if the Apple CEO can casually delete all my music because I just dissed Songs of Innocence.