Don’t Panic, Apple Isn’t Killing iTunes Music Downloads…Yet

A report published by Digital Music News yesterday caused quite the stir on the internet. The report made the somewhat shocking claim that Apple was “preparing to completely terminate music download offerings on the iTunes Store, with an aggressive, two-year termination timetable…” Although many people have moved on to streaming music platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music for their daily music consumption, iTunes music downloads still account for roughly $700 million in sales a year.

However, according to the report, Apple would be looking to eventually terminate music downloads in an effort to push users towards the Apple Music streaming platform. According to one of Digital Music News‘ sources, getting rid of iTunes music downloads is something they should have done awhile back – “If he were alive, [Steve] Jobs would have killed it.”

Many Apple fans expressed shock and disbelief as the report began to go viral – first there are reports of Apple killing off the 3.5mm headphone jack, and now this? For users that are currently experiencing anxiety attacks from the report – you can relax. According to Re/code and Fortune, an Apple rep has flat out denied the claims made in the Digital Music News report – when asked about the validity of the claims, Apple rep Tom Neumayr simply stated, “not true.” Although Neumayr “wouldn’t expand on that comment”, Re/code claims that he did make it clear that any timeline referred to in the Digital Music News report is absolutely false.

While the news reported by Digital Music News may not necessarily be true, it likely wouldn’t surprise anyone if it were. According to the RIAA, streaming music edged out digital downloads for the first time last year, and, despite a recent resurgence in the purchasing of vinyl records and other physical media, Warner Music Group recently announced that revenue from streaming services surpasses both physical sales and digital downloads.

That’s not to say that music downloads are dead, however – not even close. The RIAA claims that download sales accounted for $2.3 billion last year. Although downloads are indeed declining, there will likely always be a large contingent that prefer to own their music, whether digital or physical, over streaming it. Streaming may continue to further dominate the music market, but digital downloads are here to stay, and there’s no reason to believe that iTunes will be putting an end to the market that it helped create any time soon.

When was the last time you purchased music on iTunes? Let us know in the comments.