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.