This sounds like the beginning of the end of iTunes, as Apple has officially announced it will stop taking new LP submissions as of this month.
Since 2009, this has been the ideal format for music consumers to purchase digital albums all in one sweep — along with bundled elements such as music videos, bonus tracks, notes or commentary, etc.
According to an internal company email obtained by Metro:
“Apple will no longer accept new submissions of iTunes LPs after March 2018. Existing LPs will be deprecated from the store during the remainder of 2018. Customers who have previously purchased an album containing an iTunes LP will still be able to download the additional content using iTunes Match.”
Apple has since confirmed this with The Verge. Moving forward, music fans will still have access to all the previously released iTunes LPs and can make purchases at any time — but there won’t be any new ones available after this month.
Although Apple has denied reports that iTunes will be obsolete by 2019, this seems like an aggressive step in that very direction.
