Apple Music Classical App
Apple announced that it will launch a version of its Apple Music that caters to classical music. It will be available later this month. But you can preorder in the App Store today. Apple Music classical app is separated from the main Apple Music app.
Although it’s a separate app, it is included in the Apple One subscription or Apple Music subscriptions. But it doesn’t include the basic tier.
Primephonic
Last year, Apple acquired Primephonic. It’s a classical music service designed to preserve the classical genre. The service describes itself as Spotify for classical music.
It lets you search for musicians, albums, metadata, composer, soloist, etc. The level of specificity is what sets it apart from other similar services.
If you’re fond of listening to classical music, you know that a classical piece can have different parameters. The spelling also counts.
It’s not like in pop.
For instance, there are more than 40 possible spellings of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Other streaming apps can’t handle the variations.
Because of its specificity, you can search for music not just by song but also by the orchestra that recorded it or the conductor.
With this new app by Apple, classical music lovers (like me) will no longer have to deal with limited options on Apple Music or endure listening to the latest pop hits. The new app offers over five million tracks in lossless audio.
To use this app when it will be available, you need an iOS device running iOS 15.4 or later. But it’s not just for iOS users. Rather, it will also have an Android version. As mentioned, if you have an Apple Music subscription, you may not need to pay an additional fee.
If you pre-order now, it will automatically download on March 28.
Classical music is available on Apple Music. But it’s limited.
In 2019, it introduced a new section and added Deutsche Gramophone. It’s one of the biggest classical music labels. Classical music fans welcomed it.
However, they quickly pointed out issues that have been there since the launch of the service. Apple Music didn’t get it right when it comes to classical music.
This is not new. Music streaming services don’t get it right. It’s an issue that affects streaming music services. One of these issues is that streaming services considered classical music a single genre.
The grouping is frustrating.
Furthermore, the app’s basic UI fails to provide links to artists. It makes it more difficult to discover artists. For instance, the link for Martha Argerich, Berlin Philharmonic” directs you to Martha Argerich’s profile page only.
Additionally, the playlists are nonsense. Each playlist takes in overtures from different operas, thereby, disrupting how classical music is intended to be listened to.
These issues might be resolved by the upcoming Apple Music Classical app that will be available on March 28.
How Will Apple Pay?
Apple didn’t say it. Primephonic utilized a royalty model. That is, payouts were based on the time the song is played, instead of the number of times it is listened to.
