According to what Digital Music News cites as reliable sources close to the situation, Apple intends to close up shop on the iTunes store in the next several years.
Although Apple has denied the veracity of the claims, the company is reportedly dedicated to delivering music only via its year-old Apple Music streaming music service at some point in the future and DMN claims it's a matter of "not on if, but when" the iTunes store will cease to exist.
Apparently the debate on the timetable centers upon whether Apple is willing to be so aggressive in promoting its streaming offering that it is willing to kill what still is and is expected to remain a highly profitable business and significant source of revenue.
Sources claim former CEO Steve Jobs' philosophy of terminating older products that were still profitable in order to steer customers to newer offerings is now being considered when it comes to music delivery.
Even though the amounts don't near the peak of $3.9 billion earned from iTunes downloads in 2012, at the businesses' peak, iTunes still accounts for billions of dollars in annual revenue for the company, which just disappointed Wall Street with its Q1 earnings, largely due to a slowdown in iPhone sales.
A bright spot in Apple's Q1 earnings call was Apple Music however, which appears to be on a tear, having added 2 million subscribers in the past two months to now give the streamer a total of 13 million customers. The service is on track to hit 20 million subscribers by year's end, said music industry analyst Mark Mulligan, and that growth seems to be the impetus for the iTunes phaseout.
"By 2020 [Apple's] download business would be tracking to be 10 times smaller than streaming revenue but, crucially, streaming revenue would nearly have reached the 2012 iTunes Store download revenue peak," Mulligan said.
Apple, however, has denied the veracity of the report and claims it has no intentions of shutting down the iTunes store. In response to the DMN claims, Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr responded with just two words: "Not true."
