Music is a poor iTunes substitute

[WilliamDu]

I'm on Mojave with 17,000+ iTunes tracks. I will never upgrade to an OS that is behaving the way Catalina is.
iTunes has been a core feature for me with my library on Classics and a new iPod Touch. I see absolutely no feature on Catalina which would prompt me to risk my artwork or library. Apple no longer has any interest in anything other than their perpetually bigger and more expensive iPhones and becoming a streaming service. I no longer have any interest in upgrading my Apple hardware or software until they get fixed.

 

[MarciaFunebre]

If you want classic iTunes functionality use Swinsian. My database has more than 85k tracks and this program is stable and still fast with this much files and provides all the functionality I need including playing of .flac and surround sound files. Best alround player software that I know and I did make an effort to try out everything I could find.

One of the few things I would miss is the ability to run plugins so I can upsample stereo files to a fake surround and compatibility to a audio calibration software such as Dirac would be nice.

 

[tranceking26]

I use iTunes quite often so losing it would mess things up for me.

 

[jacg]

I’m using Music for music but I hate the album view UX and that annoying back button. Much preferred being able to open albums and just keep scrolling to see the next thing.

Still running iTunes for podcasts (which can be controlled via Remote app and the dock icon ?) and for internet radio, both of which can still be sent to one or more AirPlay speakers. Podcasts just shows how limited catalyst apps are right now. At least Music was built from iTunes.

 

[lfaa]

Very helpful to know this. I don't like Music but at least it hasn't eaten any of my files (I think). Given the reports here of deletions, though, I'm going to hang on to the old CDs I have in my garage. I put them onto my Mac a long time ago, have thought of donating them - seems maybe I better keep them.
One observation: I also have old and rare CDs (and some digitizations from LPs) which I treasure, but I've been surprised how much I enjoy streaming Apple Music - gives me a chance to sample many artists I wouldn't otherwise. My main complaint is how poorly AM handles classical music...and it doesn't play nicely with classical music streaming services like Primephonic or Naxos

Sure it's better to keep them. Always keep your raw data: CD, vinyls, books, color slides... Moving them to digital is good, convenient for a while, but the digital version is certainly much more volatile, and paradoxaly requires significant digital maintenance. My 2c