Apple changed the way we buy and listen to music. With the creation of iTunes, we no longer needed to buy physical albums it was all in one place on an iPod. You were able to listen to your music with ease and purchase music knowing it would never be lost. Skip forward a few years to 2018 where people rarely buy digital albums.
With services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal available there is no need to buy separate digital albums anymore. For $9.99 or less a month you can listen to an unlimited amount of music without having to pay for each song individually. These services ultimately make iTunes pointless and outdated. Apple Music took over the standard music application on iOS devices in 2015 with new menus to fit Apple’s new Music service.
However, it’s not just music that makes iTunes less relevant now. With other services such as Netflix, Hulu and Now TV, offering movies and TV shows at a cheaper monthly subscription, there is no need for iTunes to sell movies and shows anymore. A standard 4K film costs around $8-$15 on iTunes whereas Netflix offer ‘unlimited’ movies and shows at between $5-$10 a month. I have looked into building a library of movies and purchasing them from iTunes to be able to watch on Mac, Apple TV and iPhone but it would cost extortionate amounts whereas I can just have the same account logged into a Netflix app on each device.
Apple yet again changed the way we consume and listen to music with Apple Music just like they did with iTunes and the iPod. The company and the public have moved on with technology and the way we use it which is why iTunes is no longer as relevant as it used to be.