The iTunes brand is being slowly carted off to the Apple graveyard.
On Thursday morning, Apple made a very subtle but profound change to the way it markets podcasts. From now on, they’re no longer called “iTunes Podcasts” — they’re called “Apple Podcasts.”
The change was officially revealed today by Apple, moving the branding more inline with Apple Music. Unfortunately, the name change doesn’t come with any major new features or updates. However, podcasters did get some new marketing guidelines to follow.
Many podcasters fear that Apple is neglecting podcasts, even though it created the entire industry when Steve Jobs introduced software for downloading digital audio shows to iPods back in 2005.
Death of iTunes means life for ‘Apple podcasts’
Apple’s iTunes brand and software has been around since 2001. iTunes put Cupertino in the driver’s seat as downloads transformed the music industry (and effectively killed the record album).
However, as streaming services like Spotify took the place of downloads, iTunes’ days became numbered. Apple eventually jumped into the streaming game by buying Beats Electronics and transforming its streaming service into Apple Music.
Over the years, iTunes software itself has become so bloated and cumbersome that many Apple fans hope the company kills the app. By moving sections like Apple Music and Apple Podcasts into their own brands, Apple is clearing a path to put iTunes out to pasture.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
11 responses to “Apple takes another step toward killing iTunes brand”
Actually iTunes came out in 2001, not 1997. SoundJam was the jukebox of the day.
you’re right. my bad. fixed :)
SoundJam………. terrific app !!! :)
So what if they change the name from iTunes to Apple? Makes perfect sense to me.
Will Apple still have the driving component of how we sort and run our AppleTV stuff, but just call it something else besides iTunes? I have a butt load of music, movies and TV shows sorted and run from my iTunes, to my AppleTV ….
Hmmm… I dunno. While this doesn’t bother me in the slightest, I feel like Apple is making a mistake by trying to brand everything with “Apple.” It’s going to dilute the brand message with consumers eventually.
I don’t care what they call it but I still like orginization and want a better app. I want the play lists on my computer to correctly sync to my iOS devices. Better organization of playlists iTunes in the cloud?
iTunes used to be SoundJam. Apple bought SoundJam and worked on it from there. :-)
This thing where apple is naming everything what it is frankly is getting a bit annoying. Searching for help with iCal was easy inasmuch as “iCal” is a unique reference to the software. Searching for help with “Calendar” or “Mail” or “Messages” is a nightmare because, although Apple may act like it, theirs is not the only calendar, mail or messages on the net.
iTunes is a colossal mess and has been for years. Is it a music app? Is it an iPhone update app? There’s drop down menus in the menu bar and in the app itself *plus* the ; it’s riddled with bugs; it overheats my computer if I actually use it to play music. Apple “Music” (now labelled “for you”) keeps showing up even though I keep deleting it. It’s just a visual mess.
Kill it off, split up the parts, and let’s get on with it.
That is not the only thing Apple is killing! More than 25 years an Apple user, I’m loosing my faith fast. I lost Music and photos using iTunes and iPhoto. You would think that by using an Apple App, that even though Apple updates or changes the App like iPhotos to Photos, doesn’t mean I have to loose all my music or photos because of it!!! Don’t start responding: should have “Backed up” etc, Would not make a difference. It is absurd, when a window opens up and tells you: You can not open an older version of a Apple app until you download the new version. Ridiculous!!!! I lost my trust in Apple and while I still use iTunes & Photos, I place all media in a file FIRST. Maybe that is what I should have done all along!!!!