Apple ends iTunes.

Apple has announced that it’s ending iTunes which it will be replacing with Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts.

iTunes that Apple launched in 2001, will survive on Windows platforms, with downloads for iTunes that will continue to be available in a sidebar on the Apple Music app for Macs.

Apple made the announcement at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Jose where America’s technology giants unveil what their respective software plans and updates are for the upcoming year.

The demise of the iconic iTunes is largely due to the rise in streaming services with seismic changes the past two decades for the global music industry, with Apple that is ending iTunes in favour of its three better apps already found on Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

Consumers’ existing music purchases and music libraries won’t disappear or be wiped out but will fold into each of the new Apple apps on Macs.

Unlike iTunes where Apple doesn’t make money until a consumer buys a song or an album Apple charges a monthly fee for the Apple Music app, ensuring more constant revenue as the video and music content industry globally is gearing up and expanding their efforts in digital subscription and streaming on-demand services.

"The future of iTunes is not one app, it's three – Apple Music, ApplePodcasts and Apple TV," said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, at WWDC 2019.

Apple plans to launch Apple TV+ internationally as its new streaming service with original shows and films later this year.

Apple TV available from Friday in South Africa; very likely the harbinger of TV shows to be made available in SA on iTunes very soon.

South African TV viewers will be able to buy Apple TV, in essence Apple's own set-top box (STB) for the first time from this Friday, a very strong indicator that Apple plans to soon add TV shows to its iTunes service for South Africa.

The commercial roll-out of the hardware would make no sense without content to play through it, and now Apple TV will start selling locally from Friday at the recommended retail price of R1 099.

With the device already used in other countries and by South Africans who've bought it overseas, South African viewers channel TV content such as television shows, films and even music through the box which connects to iTunes as well as to other content receptacles within its reach. Content is then streamed to TV sets.

The Apple TV will be available from Friday in South Africa from Makro, Incredible Connection, Dion, Wired, Hi-Fi Corp, Digicape and iStore.

Apple in December allowed South Africans for the first time to buy music through iTunes and a week later also made movies - as well as South African films - commercially available on the service.