macOS 10.15’s standalone Music app will include advanced features from iTunes

Song Info in Menu iTunes

The next macOS version to be previewed at WWDC 2019 on June 3 will bring a standalone Music app (and other ported iOS apps). A source has learned that Music for Mac won’t be a sub-par Marzipan app in the same way that Stocks and News are—quite the contrary it will have many of the advanced features iTunes users are accustomed to.

Some of the advanced features that the new app will support include smart playlists, advanced library management, syncing with iPods and iOS devices and disc reading and burning.

Guilherme Rambo, 9to5Mac:

We previously discovered the new standalone Music app to be included in the next major version of macOS, 10.15. In that post, we mentioned the new Music app would be made using Marzipan, that lets iOS apps run on the Mac. Recently, sources familiar with the development of the OS reached out, correcting that information. The new standalone Music app on macOS will actually be an AppKit application, based off of iTunes.

Good choice, I’d say. Marzipan is in its early stages and it’s going to take at least a year or two until all the APIs have been fleshed out. Current Marzipan-built apps in Mojave leave a lot to be desired and just don’t feel native enough.

Music is a major focus for Apple and if they’re going to break up desktop iTunes into smaller apps, as they should, the company would be shooting itself in the foot by releasing a Marzipan-powered Music app that didn’t have half the advanced features of iTunes.

This new version would be the final step in the process that started with iTunes 12.7, which was updated to focus on music, moviecs, TV shows, podcasts and audiobooks. With new standalone apps for all media types on macOS 10.15, iTunes becomes focused on just music and gets renamed to Music, like its counterpart on iOS.

Wait, so Music for macOS will be a stripped-down version of the current iTunes app, not a brand new app written from scratch? Be that as it may, we’re glad that Apple appears to be finally addressing the bloated mess that is desktop iTunes.

How about you?