Report: After an 18-year old relationship, the digital service that arguably reconstructed the music industry is coming in to an end.

According to Bloomberg, Apple Inc.’s developer conference (WWDC) beginning Monday will move the company closer to a future in which the iPhone is no longer the central cog for other products and services. 

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and other leaders will make a keynote presentation at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California, to unveil updates of Apple’s operating systems and a new approach to apps. One move, bound to be potentially controversial is dissolving the groundbreaking app iTunes. While freeing up all of Apple’s Ecosystem to be more independant of one singular device housing all of a consumer’s music is inticing, the move places increasing attention (and pressure)ono Apple’s iCloud to be able to house the burden of wirelessly syncing each of it’s hundreds of millions of consumer’s music instantly.

If Apple does dissolve iTunes, the moment would definitely symbolize an end of a significant era in music. In January 2001, iTunes introduced the platform as a new way of file-sharing that was both user-friendly and lawful following the legal fallout of Napster and other free media-sharing outlets like Kazaa and Bearshare. It was also the service that single handedly ushered in MP3 players and the decline of the portable CD player. What do you guys think of the news.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Ray Tang/REX/Shutterstock (456293o)