Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple is reportedly preparing to refurbish its iTunes service by the end of this year.
Without disclosing the identity of some people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the Cupertino firm has plans to make the largest changes to iTunes ever to fix issues like frequent crashes.
The report also claimed that the overhaul would aim at making it easier for consumers to find new content and better manage the material they already have. The changes would also allow a user to listen to a song sent to him/her from a friend for free. To make this possible, the Cupertino firm is pursuing negotiations with record labels to gain required rights.
In addition, the tech giant has plans to bring iCloud and iTunes closer to each other to allow users to more conveniently access and manage their digital content like music, videos, and apps across different Apple devices.
Earlier this week, Apple expanded iTunes to twelve Asian countries, including Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Apple's iTunes, which made debut in 2003, currently offers more than 45,000 movies and 28 million songs; while the iTunes App Store offers more than 650,000 apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.