Apple, Inc. has denied a report that it is planning to stop selling music via its iTunes store at some point in the coming four years.

The claim came via sources quoted by Digital Music News, reporting that Apple was considering a number of options for the service, including an “aggressive, two-year termination timetable” for the service, or alternatively a shut down in three to four years, with one source claiming that discussions are now focused “not on if, but when” music downloads should be retired for good.

One source said to be an Apple executive is claimed to have specifically said “keeping [iTunes music downloads] running forever isn’t really on the table anymore” as paid music downloads are likely to be an afterthought in a streaming-dominated industry.

Apple responded to the report in a rare statement, with Apple representative Tom Neumayr telling Recode that the story was simply “not true,” but failed to elaborate further.

Believable

While sites such as Apple Insider claim that the report that Apple was considering the long term future of iTunes music sales is “spurious” and “questionable,” anyone with half a brain, or in this case someone who isn’t an Apple sycophant, would know, looking at the long term trends in the music industry, that the report is believable.

Digital music sales are rapidly declining as streaming music service continue to gain popularity, to the point that streaming music services accounted for 34 percent of the music market by revenue in the United States in 2015, or $2.4 billion for the year (up 29 percent year-on-year), compared to digital sales sitting at $2.33 billion.

The raw numbers may not mean much, but what they represent is a constant decline in digital music sales from a peak in 2012, as online music-streaming services are rapidly growing.

Apple still makes good money from digital music sales, but the trend for the iTunes store, as it is with entire digital music sales market, is downwards. While Apple may still be making profits from the service in the hundreds of millions, it will only be matter of three to five years until that figure drops to tens of millions.

At the same time Digital Music News notes, rightly, that there is a level of confusion among Apple consumers when it comes to iTunes music sales and Apple Music, something that was mentioned last week when news broke about Apple’s plans to overhaul Apple Music; there’s a conflict between both services as essentially they compete, but with the overall market trend being clear, how much longer will Apple push digital music sales versus focusing on Apple Music alone?

It may be five years, it may well be 10 years until Apple pulls the plug on digital music sales, but anyone who thinks Apple will continue selling digital music over the longer term is deluding themselves.

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