The Downfall of iTunes: Why Pro DJs Need a Better Solution for Managing Their Music Libraries

Last week news broke that Apple will likely separate their various media — Music, Video, and Podcasts — into their own unique applications when the next macOS drops (to be showcased at WWDC in June and then release in the fall of 2019). Along with long-circulating rumors that Apple will do away with the ability to purchase and download songs via iTunes (or whatever it may be called) in the future, instead focusing on their Apple Music subscription offering, this could have serious ramifications for DJs that use iTunes for media management.

Big changes to functionality in iTunes updates without advanced warning for software developers such as ourselves are unfortunately nothing new. A couple of years ago iTunes 12.2 launched and the library sharing feature was disabled by default, which prevented DJ software like DEX 3 from automatically importing iTunes playlists. That wasn’t the only change, and we were forced to drop all open projects to release a patch to support the new library sharing method iTunes 12.2 deployed. This was somewhat of an easy fix, but the changes in store for iTunes on the horizon look to be considerably more intense.

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What do we suggest DJs do?

Technically, nothing needs to be done just yet. We likely won’t see any big changes to the product-soon-to-be-formally-known-as-iTunes until the official macOS update scheduled for Fall 2019. However, there’s no reason DJs can’t start prepping to migrate away from the iTunes/Apple ecosystem.

DEX 3, like most DJ software , has it’s own inherent playlist creation tools and database. It’s easy to import and manage your music, videos, and karaoke files in DEX 3, and backing everything up is a simple process. While DEX 3’s tag editing and management capabilities aren’t quite on par with iTunes right now, our development team has a sizable list of file browser upgrades planned for this year – including smart lists.

With big changes on the horizon for Apple and iTunes now is a great time to get hatted up on managing your media within the DEX 3 browser — we promise not to break things with dramatic upgrades, something Apple and it’s move to a seemingly more closed ecosystem hasn’t shied away from in the past.

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