Goodbye iTunes for Mac

I got the Catalina upgrade notice this morning but didn't click on the button because I don't feel I know enough about what sound like substantial changes. Please update with your experience as you sort things out. Thanks

Are you having any issues with Apple Music messing with your CD collection? I have a bunch of live concerts in Flac that I converted to Apple Lossless to use with my phone, but found that Apple Music substituted most of the tracks for low res studio versions and completely messed up the cover art, so I stopped using it. 

@saeyedoc 

So far, the migration to Catalina OS with Music app has been good.  All my music files and playlists are intact.  Sound is great.  I like a dedicated Music app with the simpler layout.

My only issue is with the iTunes Remote app for iOS not working.  I’m not sure if Apple will update this app or if they will integrate it into the functionality of the new AirPlay 2 interface, which controls all Apple Music sources across Mac, iOS and Apple TV.

Your issue with Apple replacing files might be with the Apple Music service and/or the iTunes Match/iCloud Music Library feature.  Sometimes these options can mess with files, especially if those files are something unique that you’ve archived/uploaded.

Do you subscribe to Apple Music, iTunes Match and/or have iCloud Music Library enabled?

In my experience the Apple Music service absolutely will destroy your music library. I joined and it immediately substituted it’s own lower resolution files for every one of the AIFF files I’d ripped from hundreds of my own CDs over many years, along with any other files that were the same song as ones in the Apple Music service. It took months to restore my library after turning off Apple Music but it wasn’t possible to restore everything from the originals I no longer had access to. iTunes has always worked for me but I'm waiting for more information about the Music functionality in Catalina.

My problems were when I was using our family plan for Apple Music. I thought it would be nice to have access to new music to try, but that's what messed up my hi res collection. Once I turned off Apple Music, everything has been back to normal, but I did have to reload a bunch of stuff that was still wrong. 

@sfar 
@saeyedoc 

Yes, you are totally correct, the Apple Music service ruined a lot of iTunes libraries.  Same goes for iTunes Match/iCloud Music Library.  As much as I enjoy the Apple Music service, it was a frustrating time when it was first released.

I dodged the bullet because I had my CD library in Apple Lossless on two different Macs, the first of them only used for the CD library:  no iTunes Match, no iCloud Music Library and no Apple Music enabled.  So when I subscribed to Apple Music on the second Mac, as well as my iOS devices, and noticed how it was messing with my library, I was able to keep my Apple Lossless CD library safe on the first Mac.  This is how I still use a dedicated Mac just for my CD library.  I keep it manually curated and don’t subscribe/enable the other services on that Mac.

I haven’t updated the dedicated (music) Mac to Catalina....yet.  I have updated my second Mac and MacBook to Catalina and it has kept those libraries intact.  Those libraries have all the services/subscriptions enabled, so they have some duplicates and replaced files, but I know what’s there and use them across all my iOS devices without any issues.

I feel fairly confident about updating the (music) Mac to Catalina.  I’m going to give it a little more time, just to make sure that no problems show up.  I updated to Mojave last year without any problems, but Catalina removes iTunes and I want to make sure my CD library will be safe and that the new Music app sounds as good.  Some of the early iTunes versions had subtle sound differences, but later versions sound consistent.  So far the new Music app sounds good, so things seem OK.

Please keep me posted of your experience and thoughts.  There’s not very many of us dedicated Apple/Music listeners here, so it’s wonderful to meet you and get your feedback.

I've been on Catalina for about a week now and no complaints.  I use a mac-mini server streaming Tidal but haven't upgraded it yet.  Never been an iTunes fan and only use when I need to.

Only complaint with Catalina was it had to re sync all my audio files on my iphone which took an hour or so

The Apple Music app for Mac has been serving me well.  I’ve been streaming Apple Lossless files to a USB DAC and through AirPlay 2 on a tweaked Sonos Port into a nice DAC.  My foot is tapping with a smile on my face.