Apple Officially Retires Music Memos App

As expected, Apple has officially retired its Music Memos app, which allows musicians and songwriters to capture song ideas on the fly.

Music Memos Apple
As noted by The 8-Bit, as of today Music Memos no longer shows up in App Store searches. Nevertheless, users who installed the app prior to March 2 can still use it and re-download the app if necessary using their ‌App Store‌ purchase history.

Apple announced in December that it planned to retire Music Memos after March 1, and advised users to export their Music Memos recordings to the Voice Memos library to ensure that they're saved.

Originally launched in January 2016, the app was able to analyze rhythm and chords of acoustic guitar and piano recordings, and instantly add drums and a bass line to provide a virtual, customizable backing band.

However, after improving Voice Memos in step with newer releases of iOS, Apple clearly became less convinced of the utility of also offering the Music Memos app, which received few updates in the course of its life.

The last update, version 1.0.7, only added the ability to export Music Memos recordings to the Voice Memos library, and Apple now encourages all musicians to use Voice Memos over Music Memos. Apple says that Voice Memos can be used to quickly capture ideas just as easily, and recordings can be taken further with GarageBand.

Exporting Music Memos to Voice Memos requires an iPhone with iOS 14 or an iPad with iPadOS 14, along with the latest versions of Voice Memos and Music Memos. Exported content will appear in Voice Memos in a folder titled "Music Memos."

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

HaywireTX Avatar
50 months ago
If you understood the app, you would be sad that it went away. It was a great app that Apple should have expanded on.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
deijmaster Avatar
50 months ago

Clearly, this one of those Apple ideas that seemed like a good thing at the time, but never really caught on with musicians. When it comes down to it, there are really only two ways of recording music these days
humm not really. As a riffmaker (and many I know) that was a go-to app for quick recording ideas, as most of the time inspiration strikes in weird places... At least for me, rarely in front of my console. Cool feature to get auto drums and bass for a quick feel. The thing with companies these days is that the second an app doesn't really grow, they remove it, instead of adding to it, or at least, asking us users what could be cool...

This is exactly the kind of app that could've of been really cool if it got a bit more love. I'm sure Apple has the resources and could've made it much cooler. Especially if it made it work with the music app and logic for example... and never did. Because Apple never asks.

Apple's commercials usually indicate individuality, creativity and inspiration. Well, not really. Tim is an ops man, nothing more.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
farewelwilliams Avatar
50 months ago
there's a memo's app?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MrMacBookPro20 Avatar
50 months ago

Clearly, this one of those Apple ideas that seemed like a good thing at the time, but never really caught on with musicians.

When it comes down to it, there are really only two ways of recording music these days, audio and MIDI. For audio, there really isn't a need to have anything fancier than a cheap voice recorder if you just want to put some ideas down. For MIDI, it's of course nice to have a DAW, but there are also standalone sequencers, workstations and apps that are good tools for this.

Maybe in several years after the AI to recognize the artist's intent when they recorded the "music memo" is more advanced and capable of producing a good result, something like Music Memos might be a good idea. Perhaps Apple will revive it then.
This app wasn't intended to be used for normal music production, it's use case was to capture ideas for songs quickly
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Feyl Avatar
50 months ago
Am I the only one who used this app?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jamajuel Avatar
50 months ago

Am I the only one who used this app?
No. I am quite sad that they are removing it. As a guitarist, it is really useful because the notes part of it allows me to very quickly jot down the tuning and Capo position. Shame really, wish they had just open-sourced it.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)