VOA慢速英语2019 苹果对iTunes说“再见”（在线收听）

Apple Says 'Goodbye' to iTunes

Apple is saying goodbye to iTunes: once the company’s revolutionary music program.

苹果公司开始跟iTunes说拜拜，它曾是该公司革命性的音乐程序。

iTunes software made buying songs for 99 cents easy and available to everyone on the internet.

iTunes软件让互联网用户可以用99美分的价格轻松地购买歌曲。

These days many people no longer use iTunes. On the iPhone, what iTunes does has been divided into separate apps for music, video and books. Apple replaced iTunes in the new operating system for its Mac computers called Catalina that was released Monday.

如今很多人都不再使用iTunes。在iPhone手机上，iTunes的功能被拆分为音乐、视频和图书的独立应用程序。苹果周一在新发布的Catalina电脑操作系统中替换了iTunes。

Having separate apps for music, video and other services lets Apple better control the kinds of media that it wants to sell. For example, it will permit Apple to push its TV streaming service and music services. Company officials hope this will help ease the effect of slowing sales for the iPhone.

音乐、视频等服务的独立应用程序让苹果公司可以更好地控制它要销售的媒体类型。例如，它将会允许苹果公司推销其电视流媒体服务和音乐服务。公司官员希望这将会有助于缓解iPhone手机销售放缓的影响。

Years ago, iTunes was a way to get music onto Apple’s main product, the iPod music player. Users connected the iPod to a computer, and downloaded songs simply and easily.

多年前，iTunes是将音乐添加到苹果主要产品iPod音乐播放器中的一种途径。用户把iPod连接到电脑，然后简单放播地下载歌曲。

“I would just kind of mock my friends who were into anything other than iPods,” said Jacob Titus. He is a 26-year-old designer in South Bend, Indiana.

雅各布·提图斯表示：“我会嘲笑那些对某些东西着迷的朋友，除了iPod音乐播放器。”他是印第安纳州南本德市一位26岁的设计师。

Apple began its iTunes Music Store in 2003, two years after releasing the iPod. It had simple pricing: 99 cents for a single song or $9.99 got a whole album of music. Because the price was so low, many buyers preferred legally using iTunes to getting illegal internet downloads.

苹果在发布iPod两年之后的2003年开设了iTunes音乐商店。它的定价简单，单曲99美分或9.99美元整张音乐专辑。由于价格如此便宜，很多用户都愿意合法使用iTunes去进行非法的互联网下载（注：应该是价格很贵才非法下载）。

But over time, iTunes expanded to include podcasts, e-books, audiobooks, movies and TV shows. As the software grew to support additional abilities, it lost its beloved simplicity.

但是随着时间推移，iTunes扩展到包含播客、电子书、有声读物、电影和电视节目。随着该软件逐渐支持其它功能，它失去了受人喜爱的简便性。

Then, wireless downloads made it unnecessary to physically connect iPhones to a computer to get music and other media.

然后，无线下载使得无需再把iPhone物理连接到电脑上来下载音乐和其它媒体。

“At the time it seemed great,” Titus said. “But it kind of stayed that same speed forever.”

提图斯表示：“当时看起来很棒，但是它永远保持着相同的速度。”

The way people listen to music also has changed. The RIAA, a U.S. music industry group, says it now gets 80 percent of its money from subscriptions and streaming services.

人们听歌的方式也发生了变化。美国唱片协会这一音乐行业组织表示，该协会80%的资金来自于订阅和流媒体服务。

“The move away from iTunes really does (show) the general industry move away from sales” and toward subscriptions, said Randy Nelson of company Sensor Tower.

感知塔公司的兰迪·尼尔森表示：“iTunes被抛弃确实表明整个行业从销售转向了订阅。”

The Mac’s new Music app uses the old iTunes icon. It includes songs already bought from the iTunes store as well as Apple’s free online radio stations. It is also the home for Apple’s monthly music subscription service.

苹果电脑新的音乐应用程序使用了之前的iTunes图标。它包含了已经从iTunes商店购买的歌曲以及苹果公司免费的网上电台。它还被用于苹果公司每月的音乐订阅服务。

Apple Music subscribers will no longer see the iTunes music store on their computers, unless they restore it. Non-subscribers will see the store as a tab, along with ways to subscribe to Apple Music. On iPhones, iTunes Store remains its own app for buying music and video.

苹果音乐订阅用户将无法在他们的电脑上看到iTunes音乐存储，除非他们将其还原。非订阅用户会看到商店的标签，以及苹果音乐的订阅方式。在iPhone手机上，iTunes商店仍然是用于购买音乐和视频的应用程序。

I’m Susan Shand.

Words in This Story

software – n. the programs that run on a computer and perform certain functions

app – n. a computer program that performs a special functio

mock – v. to laugh at or make fun of someone

download – v. to move or copy (a file, program, etc.) from a usually larger computer system to another computer or device

subscription – n. an agreement that you make with a company to get a publication or service regularly and that you usually pay for in advance

icon – n. a small picture or design on a computer screen that represents a program or function

tab – n. a small, identifying label (called a tab) that, when selected on a computer screen, causes something to happen