Apple Acquires Classical Music Service Primephonic, Will Launch Dedicated Classical Music App

Indeed, while I tend to be more partial to later Middle Ages and Renaissance music there are some excellent chants that are mostly unknown today. There needs to be a bit of everything for this service to be really great, not just post-Baroque music. Early music has many treasures.
Agreed, 100%. Right now I am listening to the Psalterium Currens on Apple Music (sadly they have from Psalm 50), and it's so relaxing, majestic, outside of time and space.... can't wait to see what this service will offer. There is so much more than Beethoven or Mozart (not that there is anything wrong with listening to those two ! :) )
 
Glad to see Apple is recognizing the 1700s (classical music), but they should also get into renaissance music, medieval music, modernist music, postmodern and contemporary art music, the romantic era, baroque, expressionism and so on.

Or is Apple actually grouping ars nova with minimalism in a "classical" category? As if rap, punk and grunge are all "pop"?
My guess is "Academic" sounds snobbish -or even boring- for marketing purposes.
Though if they are specializing the segment with a separate app, I wouldn't mind the term.
 
Same here.
I tried Idagio and apart from some bugs in the UI and overall Beta feel of the whole experience, it was another monthly on top of.
Classical music lovers are on the whole more into all kinds of “good” music.
So I stuck with AM for all the rest and for classical it was a bunch of good radio stadions.
I am thrilled that hopefully, given time, this will all be one music service.
I personally suggest : like the normal iOS calculator - flipped over is a scientific calculator! : an extended metadata set for classical music + suggested playlists separate between classical and the rest.
Way to go apple, was waiting for this like forever.
Thanks
 
Please, as soon as possible!!

Idagio is simply terrible, with an absolutely clueless team (I recently witnessed a private sales pitch of those guys, and it was simply cringeworthy). Qobuz would have been an interesting alternative, though.

This news gives me hope that Apple is finally making it right for Classical music lovers. Yes, LISTEN different, indeed!

Yo Yo Ma performed at Steve's funeral service, and sadly the "new guy" does not seem to have much of a refined taste in anything outside of working out, tbh. No offense, Tim. ;)

I personally simply hate the fact that basically all music at Apple events is forgettable and simply noisy "music du jour"... Good to see that they have not completely lost track of other music and are actively looking into this.
 
Show me the research about this!

😛
I think that just his/her/it’s opinion because of the almost 30years I have been to the opera, most people I know that love classical music are into many genres of music.
So one app for all music : as I see it-
If you’re not into classical music, don’t check the box.
If you are, and you checked the box, it shows an expanded metadata set for searching classical music.
Simple as that.
Not funny though for the subscribers being cut off in a good week’s time. 6 months of struggling through AM until they can finally (hopefully) start listening comfortably again… I know I wouldn’t be happy!
 
Care to elaborate on why that's the case? Honest curiosity btw.
This Reddit comment explains it fairly well, I think:

Classical music is fundamentally differently structured than “pop”:

  • An album has both a composer (like Mozart) and an artist/artists (the orchestra, the soloists etc.)
  • An albums consists of works which consist of one to many movements, and an album likely contains works from different composers sometimes played by different artists
  • You almost always want to listen to one work - you can deliberately listen to only one movement, but it’s not like pop songs where you can randomly shuffle songs
  • One work will be on many albums, played by different artists but still share the same catalog identification (there usually is one per composer, like the Köchel catalogue to identify Mozart works)
  • A work is created in a certain year (often long ago) and then performed /released in a different year (often recent)
Basically, with classical music you’re dealing with a ton more metadata which has a lot of meaning on the experience.

I don’t want to listen to “a song by Beethoven from the 9th symphony”, I want to listen to “Beethoven’s 9th symphony, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, the version released in 1963”.

That’s why classical streaming services exist: to expose that metadata and make it easily searchable/browseable.
 
I have to say, I’m (pleasantly) surprised at how many people here love and enjoy classical music. It gives me a bit of hope for the world.

We’re generally the quieter, more reserved ones. You’re not the only one that has found the response on the forum to this news heartening

WOW! You mean I WON'T have to scroll through row after row of cover art of all the latest releases from the Rap Stars, the Country Claque and The Botched Lobotomy Girls to get to the ONE box in Browse marked "Classical" that contains umpteen centuries worth of the best music ever made? You mean I WON'T have to look at Lorde's butt crack again?
Would love a user configurable quick link to the classical homepage that I could add to my music library, maybe similar to JW curated playlists can be added. Having to scroll down past so much albums, artists and playlists that I am never going to click on, every single time without being able to create a quick link from either my library or my Listen Now page seems silly.

Sounds like the new app might just solve this.
 
I like this idea! Who knows, maybe Apple will consider outsourcing Apple Music to somebody that make it work right with iOS devices. ☮️
 
The metadata, as many have stated, is the thing that they need to get right. I haven't subscribed to Apple Music for about two years, because I can't deal with the fact it swaps out my CD recordings of certain pieces for others - it doesn't like Muti's recordings of the Stravinsky early ballets with Philadelphia for instance, and insists on replacing them with its own recordings....
 
Am I reading this correctly, that they are taking the service entirely offline after September 7th while they work on the new offering? Not that I am a subscriber, but I would think that would seriously suck for those who are.
 
I must be the only person unhappy with this news. I’ve been a happy subscriber almost since Primephonic started. They understand what I (and probably a large number of classical music lovers) want. For example, unlike most modern music, it’s extremely useful to have dozens of interpretations of the same piece in your library. Different artists breathe very different life into the same notes. Even the same artist often makes pronounced changes through the different stages of their career. The community forums often had thought-provoking threads, and Maestro is a wonderful feature for acquainting yourself with new compositions. I can’t help but fear much of this will be tossed aside as Apple attempts to appeal to a wider market.

I use this service daily, and it will be unavailable as of the 7th.
 
The only real difference would be the search - I am pretty sure everything in Primephonic was already in Apple Music. But the other difference, and it’s key, is that when you get Apple Music to play random classical music from your playlist, it rarely shows the composer - for example, it’ll say “Piano concerto no. 1“ and “By Trevor Pinnock” but Trevor Pinnock is the performer (artist) and not the composer.
 
The only real difference would be the search - I am pretty sure everything in Primephonic was already in Apple Music.
About half of all new releases and many older releases on Primephonic come with a digital booklet, which gives useful information on the works themselves as well as the artists performing them. Apple Music does not offer such booklets.

Primephonic also has a community forum where classical music enthusiasts can ”converse” with one another about all things classical. Apple Music does not offer such a forum.

And while curation is available on Apple Music, Primephonic offers a vastly superior and vastly expanded curation experience. My opinion of course.
 
True fans of classical will never be fully appeased by streaming services, there will never be the same breadth of releases as are on CD or vinyl. Any more ways to listen however are still appreciated.
This. Much of the classical music that I enjoy is well outside of the standard repertoire.
 
Not sure why it can't be combined with the Music app, but I guess Apple is going to preserve Primephonic's structure rather than integrate it fully into Apple Music. It'd be nice if it could just be one app though. Part of the reason I still have my Qobuz subscription is that it's superior when it comes to classical music. It's nice to see Apple getting more serious about classical, since most streaming apps are geared toward popular music.

I'll never be able to fully move to streaming for classical music (plenty of recordings I own on CD are not available on any streaming service, including all of the Hyperion label), but I'll welcome any improvement. I'm tried of clicking on an album and having all the tracks with incredibly long names, or listing only the movement name and not the name of the work, etc.
 
Do not waste your time waiting for it. Just do it on your own. Get the records, you love, store and categorize them locally and enjoy your music.
That's what I've been doing for decades. Nearly all of it is ripped to digital, and that will continue to be my primary listening source.
 
Glad to see Apple is recognizing the 1700s (classical music), but they should also get into renaissance music, medieval music, modernist music, postmodern and contemporary art music, the romantic era, baroque, expressionism and so on.

Or is Apple actually grouping ars nova with minimalism in a "classical" category? As if rap, punk and grunge are all "pop"?

I'm fairly certain they mean lowercase "classical", an umbrella term for Western art music, as opposed to just the 18th century Classical period.
 
I’m happy about the improvement to the classical search and browsing but I don’t really want a separate app just for classical.

considering that Apple current doesn’t have curated specialists for classical music, would be strange to feature a block or a few blocks alongside pop, rap, and rock n roll artists. May go largely unnoticed.

when in the browse area of Apple Music (on device).
 

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considering that Apple current doesn’t have curated specialists for classical music, would be strange to feature a block or a few blocks alongside pop, rap, and rock n roll artists. May go largely unnoticed.

when in the browse area of Apple Music (on device).

I think browse section is mostly for new music or locally trending music rather than music of a specific genre (although given popularity of other genres it’s pretty much impossible for classical pieces to appear there). Apple Music has commonly listened-to genres in the listen now tab. For example, it has generated a specific section just for curated classical on mine. The try special audio tracks are also classical for me.

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