Apple Music first debut it’s streaming services back in 2015 and since then it seems that Apple has seen it’s growth continue to grow exponentially. With such success means some changes would have to eventually be made to Apple‘s current old line download store, “iTunes Store“.
Rumors had been going around that Apple had actually been planning to soon shut down the iTunes store due to the growth mentioned for Apple Music. Top Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine had then practically confirmed the rumors with his statement on the matter.
“If I’m honest, it’s when people stop buying,” he said. “It’s very simple.”
According to “internal roadmaps” reported by Digital Music News, the service will reportedly officially announce the shut down on March 31, 2019 placing the last nail on the coffin if reports appear to be accurate.
While Apple would begin to phase out the store portion of the service, users would still be able to continue to use any content purchased through iTunes (MP3s, AACs, DRM-protected songs) on all devices. The change would be in the form of the paid download offering seen being removed as iTunes is expected to be kept around in some form.
An official termination date for the feature has not yet been announced and I don’t believe we’ll get more information on the subject until the announcement is made beforehand. Until then we’ll make sure to keep you all in the loop as more updates and news develop surrounding this matter.