A new service for classical music is now available for preorder with specific Apple subscription plans.
Key Details
- On Thursday, Apple announced “The Apple Music Classical app,” a new standalone app that will be available in the App Store on March 28.
- Apple Music Classical will provide a classical music library of 5 million high-quality audio tracks and recordings, including several thousand albums exclusively owned by Apple, and organized in more than 700 available playlists.
- The service will be separate from the Apple Music app but free to use with an Apple One or Apple Music subscription, but not available to Apple Music Voice Plan subscribers.
- The app is compatible with iOS 15.4 Apple devices and will eventually be available with Android devices. The Apple version is currently available for preorder.
Why It’s News
Since iTunes was discontinued in 2019, the company has been discussing and preparing new subscription-based alternatives to its industry-defining music software. Subscriptions like Apple Music and Apple TV+ emerged as replacements, but the classical music app was only just announced Thursday.
A new classical music app has been previously known to be coming since Apple purchased and shut down the Primephonic streaming service in August 2021. Primephonic was announced in 2019, breaking into a very small market against Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music, Spotify, and Tidal.
As PC Magazine notes, only 1% of the music market listens to classical music. The app emerged as a way to market and preserve this small percentage of historically significant music while making it marketable in the modern music scene. The app also came with composer biographies, deep dives into specific details about the music, and the option to search for specific orchestras, recordings, soloists, and performers.
Notable Quote
“Apple Music Classical makes it quick and easy to find any recording in the world’s largest classical music catalog with fully optimized search, and listeners can enjoy the highest audio quality available, and experience many classical favorites in a whole new way with immersive spatial audio,” says Apple.