iTunes, the de facto iPod companion changed the music industry in unimaginable ways. Released in the early 2000s, it introduced the first digital store for buying music online and in turn also solved some of the headaches faced with selling CDs.
As a result, music distribution companies were being paid much faster and also, the task of making sure CDs weren’t damaged during transit was also out of the picture. iTunes bought along with it, the 99-cent pricing which went on to become the industry standard for singles.
The service also cleansed up the music industry as music became much more accessible and people saw the advantage of iPods over pirating music; High quality audio on their music playing machine with just few clicks and few cents.
The iPod did well for a long time but then came the iPhone, it opened a whole new level of experiences and app developers made sure that they reach every corner. Spotify, the major streaming service started gulping Apple’s iTunes share and in 2015, the Cupertino-based company introduced its own streaming service named Apple Music.
Following the company’s entry into streaming, reports have been surfacing the web, that Apple will stop music downloads from iTunes, ending the multimedia album format. It was a long time coming, streaming is the future as it’s much easier to pay monthly and get access to almost all the songs produced till date.
However, using Apple Music on a Mac or a PC is still a messy task, as the streaming service resides within the already complicated iTunes application. Streaming songs from Apple Music on a Mac or a PC is not a pleasant experience.
Apple does understand the complexity of iTunes and the company took it first step towards simpler music listening experience by removing iOS’ app store from iTunes. However, it still doesn’t make listening to Apple Music an easier task.
Spotify and other major streaming services offer a simple desktop application and Apple should do the same by creating a dedicated streaming app for Mac and Windows. Let me be clear, Apple Music is fantastic on smartphones but the company sells the dream of a unified experience when in reality that’s not the case.