Try searching for Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major” on Spotify or Apple Music and you’re in for quite a mess. While modern music is generally organized by artist or album, classical music works on different terms. That’s why Apple Music is launching an app dedicated to the classical genre.
The Apple Musical Classical app is based on Primephonic, a service Apple acquired in 2021. Before the acquisition, Primephonic was one of our favorite classical platforms, offering advanced search capabilities with detailed metadata, plus some great playlists. These features are retained in Apple Music Classical, though the app obviously looks more like Apple (and includes custom portraits of well-known composers, oddly enough).
This app also provides a ton of editorial information for compositions, performers, composers, etc. And just like the basic Apple Music app, Apple Music Classical supports lossless high-resolution streaming and spatial audio.
That said, Apple Music Classical seems to lack a “Radio” feature, so users may have to rely on playlists. The App Store description also notes that Apple Music Classical requires an internet connection, which doesn’t inspire hope for offline streaming. And no news on iPad support, though Android support is coming soon.
For reference, we knew that Apple would release a classic app after it acquired Primephonic. But we didn’t know it would take so long. After Apple Music Classical didn’t release in 2022, I assumed Apple had given up on the idea; fortunately, he was wrong.
You can pre-order the Apple Music Classical app today. It launches on March 28 and will be available to all Apple Music subscribers. Please note that this app requires iOS 15.4 or later (if your phone is newer than iPhone 6S, that’s fine).
Source: Apple via Gizmodo
