With macOS 10.15 Catalina, and the splitting of iTunes into three apps (Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV), media files will be handled a bit differently. Here’s where the various files will be located.
- Music: By default, these files will be stored in
~/Music. (~ is a shortcut for your home folder, the one with the house icon and your user name.) - Apple TV: For TV shows and movies, the default location is
~/Movies. Music Videos, however, will stay in the Music app. - Podcasts: Podcasts are stored in a cache folder in
~/Library/Group Containers/243LU875E5.groups.com.apple.podcasts. This is not designed to be user accessible, and the podcast files do not display the original file names. You can, however, drag podcast files from the Podcasts app to the Desktop or to a folder. - Books: Since Apple spun off the Books app, ebooks have been stored in a folder in your Library folder:
com.apple.BKAgentService. This folder will contain both ebooks and audiobooks. As with podcasts, you’re not intended to visit this folder, and ebook files do not have their original names, though audiobooks do display their names. However, if you select a file and press the space bar to view it in Quick Look, you will see its cover. (This is not currently the case with podcasts; using Quick Look on a podcast file lets you listen to it, but there is no album artwork attached.)
When you upgrade from macOS Mojave, both the Music and Apple TV apps will remember the location of your existing media, if you are using a different folder than the default. And each of these apps has an Advanced preference allowing you to choose a location for its media folder. This means that you can store your music on one volume and your movies and TV shows on another volume, which can be practical for many people with large libraries.
Note that macOS Catalina is just a beta, and this information is subject to change.