Today, a report from Digital Music News has many in the music world raising an eyebrow and wondering about their future.

What has everyone so nervous? The end may be near for the iTunes Music Store.

According to the report - per to those nebulous sources “with close and active business relationships with Apple" - the music download business is going the way of the dinosaur.

The question is not “if" they will retire the music downloads store in lieu of their Apple Music streaming business, but when. The rumors are either an aggressive two year plan to kill off iTunes music sales, or a more lax 3-to—4 year plan of attrition.

It’s a bold plan, one that should worry music labels both large and small. But at the same time - is it that crazy of a plan?

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Apple has always been a company that aims to go where the puck will be, not where the puck is. See their killing of the DVD drive. See MacBook having only one USB 3.0 port. They’re going to where the world seems to be heading - streaming, and streaming alone. Heck, Warner Music just claimed that they’re officially making more from streaming then they do from downloads.

The question is - once the music store dies, will all iTunes media follow? Not just music, but movies, tv, and books?

Think about it - how far are we, truly, from a united source for all music, video, books, etc. $10 for music, maybe another $15 for movies, $10-$15 for books?

Right now, every video content provider is trying to have their own streaming program. HBO, Starz, AMC, Showtime, Seeso, etc. - they’re all aiming to grab increasingly smaller pieces of a very large pie. But at some point, the world will want to get more for their money. And someone, or someones, will have to step in to be the Spotify or Apple Music of that type of content.

The billion dollar question is - who is going to be the one to step ahead of the curve? And who will be caught in the cold?

It’s a big transition, one that will effect consumers and content creators alike - I just hope we end up in a space that is great for both.

Update: Apple says the story is “not true”. I still feel it’s inevitable, but I guess they aren’t planning their escape yet.