Apple begins to remove iTunes from the internet ahead of rumoured demise at WWDC 2019

Branding is gradually disappearing from the internet

Apple has started to remove iTunes from the internet, ahead of its expected demise.

For almost 20 years, the app has been the centre of Apple's strategy, containing the iTunes music and movie stores as well as allowing people to manage their iPods and iPhones. But Apple has long been rumoured to be planning to do away with it and swap it for new, standalone apps.

The latest signal of that rumoured change is the scrubbing of iTunes from the internet. It comes just hours before Apple takes to the stage at its Worldwide Developers Conference, where the announcement is set to happen.

The most obvious change is that Apple has cleared out the Instagram and Facebook pages that it runs for iTunes.

On Instagram, the company has removed all of the posts from the account so that it is completely empty. A note on the page redirects followers to the official Apple TV account instead, though all of its followers are in place.

On Facebook, the change has been even more dramatic. Apple appears to have migrated the iTunes page into its Apple TV one, leaving the followers in place but changing the branding of the page.

The Twitter account is still around and posting as normal, though its most recent posts have been retweets of the official Apple TV account.

A more subtle change has also shown up when users share songs within Apple Music. Previously, the link that would be generated to send on would begin with "itunes.apple.com" – but they now appear to have swapped to "music.apple.com", in what appears to be another example of Apple quietly moving away from the branding.

All of Apple's announcements, which is expected to include brand new versions of the iPhone operating system as well as the possibility of new products, will be covered live on The Independent.