Users of iTunes 4.2 or older who shop at the iTunes Music Store will need to update to version 4.7 by the end of the day Wednesday to continue purchasing music, Apple said in a prepared statement.
"As of today, customers will need to use one of the three most recent versions of iTunes--4.7, 4.6 or 4.5--to continue purchasing and downloading songs," Apple said.
Last month, Apple warned users that older versions of iTunes would need to be updated to continue to connect to the iTunes Music Store. Blocking version 4.2 users is not expected to be a very taxing endeavor--according to Apple, fewer than 5 percent of iTunes customers are using that older version at this point.
Along with feature improvements, Appleis latest iTunes updates have also served to disable various third-party applications and services that enabled users to circumvent built-in copy protection for streaming and downloading music from other users, as well as from iPods.