If you’re a classical music lover, music streaming services such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, and Apple Music have left you wanting. That is up until now.
Apple Music Classical is scheduled to launch on Tuesday but we were able to get an early look at the app prior to launch.
Classical music lovers have long had to contend with streaming services that are designed with the contemporary music categories of “song” and “artist.” In classical music, one looks for the movement, soloist and/or orchestra, the composer, the name of the piece, the conductor, This is why I found searching for a particular piece on Apple Music such a frustrating and futile experience. That is, up until now.
The new Apple service is based on the Primephonic classical musical streaming service that Apple purchased in August 2021. Since then, Apple announced plans to launch its classical app in 2022 but that failed to materialize.
At the time the acquisition was announced, Apple said it would take advantage of Primephonic’s detailed information about classical tracks to improve browsing and search capabilities – and it seems to have fulfilled that goal quite nicely.
The new app offers over five million classical music tracks to subscribers. It is included at no extra charge with a standard Apple Music subscription and is compatible with iOS 15.4 and later.
The standalone app leverages Primephonic’s playlists and audio content, search capabilities, and metadata, among other features. Apple contends that, with over five million tracks, it is the world’s largest classical music catalog.
Using the Classical app is easy. It won’t automatically appear on your iPhone unless you download it from the App Store but once it’s on your screen, opening the app opens an entirely new universe of classical listening opportunities.
Having spent a few days with the app, I’d say I’m more than pleased with the result. Novices to classical music can start with the Listen Now tab, which will serve as a kind of music appreciation class. The other tabs include Music by Moods, Hidden Gems, and Undiscovered Composers (who clearly at this point have been discovered, or else they wouldn’t be here).
The only area where I am disappointed is the app’s poor performance in Apple CarPlay, Apple’s universal infotainment interface found in most modern automobiles. The Apple Music Classical icon does not show up at all in CarPlay so all of the new functionality is unavailable to the driver (and passengers). The app does show up in the dual-pane dashboard view, but controls there are extremely limited, namely to Previous and Next buttons.
The app also offers exclusive records from the Wiener Philharmoniker and the London Symphony Orchestra among others. The Browse tab allows the user to browse through Composers, Periods, Genres, and Soloists, among other categories, which I found quite useful.
However, it’s the search tools that are unquestionably the most useful. For fun, I typed “Opus 27” into the search bar. The first search result was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Opus 27, No. 2., which is what I expected to see here. But I also saw pieces by Richard Strauss, Rachmaninov, and Chopin, which I was unaware of. [Editor’s note: For the uninitiated, “opus” means “ a separate composition or set of compositions by a given composer, usually ordered by date of publication.]
Another useful feature is the library tab. I noticed that recordings I had saved in the base Apple Music app also appeared here, as did, quite mysteriously, the original cast album of the Broadway show “Book of Mormon,” which is a classic but not classical music. It didn’t display all of the classical music in the base app but it was a good attempt nonetheless.
Apple may very well have a winner here. Whether you’re an experienced died in the wool classical music fan or a novice, this app is sure to meet your daily intake requirement for a variety of excellent classical music.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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