Classical music app is all good. Just don’t put Josh Groban or Michael Buble on that app…
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Apple Continuing Work on New Apple Music App for Classical Music
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All well and good.
Apple should fix AirPlay gapless/hiccups in Music app first, though.
Moreover, hi-res handling in Apple Music needs improvements (again, AirPlay – any love for hi-res?). Apple Support Communities are filled daily with 15 secs playback issues, downloaded tracks issues, Spatial Audio compatibility issues, proper hi-res usage questions, etc.
Apple should fix AirPlay gapless/hiccups in Music app first, though.
Moreover, hi-res handling in Apple Music needs improvements (again, AirPlay – any love for hi-res?). Apple Support Communities are filled daily with 15 secs playback issues, downloaded tracks issues, Spatial Audio compatibility issues, proper hi-res usage questions, etc.
Curious to know: what kinds of information do classical music fans typically look for?I’ve been using an app called Concertino for a while that shows a lot of the info Classical Music fans look for. Works great, and integrates into Apple Music.
Concertino
Finally, classical music and Apple Music working together! Transform Apple Music into a magical classical music jukebox - browse composers, genres and periods, search for recordings, create playlists of multi-movement works, start no-nonsense radio stations and much, much more, for free! -...apps.apple.com
You are absolutely correct about that. The metadata is bad to begin with, and they also have no idea how people need to search that metadata either. Keyword searching doesn't cut it.
I've been using Apple Music and the app everyday. No complaints.
Hey Apple,
How about an app that just plays my recorded library and does not keep trying to get me to stream stuff I don't want to listen to. Why on earth would a 1960's Jazz, Blues, and R&B (not the modern abortion that is called R&B) fan want to listen to JayZ?
I have over 800 hours of music recorded and there is virtually nothing on the streaming sites that I want to know about let alone listen to.
How about an app that just plays my recorded library and does not keep trying to get me to stream stuff I don't want to listen to. Why on earth would a 1960's Jazz, Blues, and R&B (not the modern abortion that is called R&B) fan want to listen to JayZ?
I have over 800 hours of music recorded and there is virtually nothing on the streaming sites that I want to know about let alone listen to.
What about a new Apple Music app for Windows. Didn't they hire some specialists a few years ago to work on that single aspect? Whatever came of that?
Between iTunes and Music over a multitude of years, I'm convinced Apple has no marketing people who have any interest in music. As there's no one left other than marketeers, there is no “team”. What's needed is a third party app. At the moment, Spotify is my choice.
Thanks for the recommendation.I’ve been using an app called Concertino for a while that shows a lot of the info Classical Music fans look for. Works great, and integrates into Apple Music.
Concertino
Finally, classical music and Apple Music working together! Transform Apple Music into a magical classical music jukebox - browse composers, genres and periods, search for recordings, create playlists of multi-movement works, start no-nonsense radio stations and much, much more, for free! -...apps.apple.com
1 -- composer! It needs a field to itself. That's the most important single fact about any classical track, and yet most streaming platforms ignore it or fail to display it. If you can't unambiguously identify the composer of a track in the metadata, get out of the business.
2 -- entire work, and movement numbers! Most classical pieces have multiple parts meant to be played in a specified order. Imagine playing "Dark Side of the Moon" on shuffle, and you'll know what classical streaming is like.
3 -- performer! Not the composer. Amazon fails this simple test frequently -- they'll list both the pianist and the composer as "artists," as if Glenn Gould shared his piano bench with Anton Webern during the recording sessions. If it's an orchestra, give me both the orchestra and the conductor.
4 -- soloist names! Who's that playing the piano? Not the conductor! Unless it is, and he's conducting from the piano. Which happens.
5 -- year of recording! Sometimes the exact same artists return to the exact same work decades later.
The basic problem is that streaming services default to "track" / "artist" / "album" -- where "track" implies independence from other tracks and therefore the shuffle problem I mentioned before, "artist" could mean just about anything, and "album" as we know it is a concept that postdates most classical compositions and isn't very meaningful, especially when compared to the (unsupported) name of the composer.
Having an entirely separate system for classical is the only way to make it work.
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I hope they continue to use a separate app for it, for the listeners' sake. I haven't used Apple Music in awhile but I hated that it was constantly showing me genres I was NEVER going to play. Why can't we just tell it, explicitly - the genres to never show me ever again? Or just select the genres we want and we will never see anything else, ever.
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I thought a lot of these issues have been resolved in the Music app in so far as record keeping is concerned, but probably not the display aspect. The one I don’t think I’ve seen (though I could be wrong) is having a separate performer line and soloist line.
I’m not in favour of a separate app for that. I’m in favour of revising the current app to deal with the issues.
I’m thinking of a database like EndNote that has different fields and category types for handling the multitude of reference sources that are possible. There’s no need for a separate EndNote application to handle monograph versus a separate application to handle journals/magazines.
I don’t think the classical music issues can’t be resolved in 1 app in so far as the native Music app is concerned.
And yet somehow once live it will continuously recommend rap and RB no matter your listening habits for months. Occasionally also some pop music.
Can you be more specific. I like the Spotify app ok but the music app is also fine. Not in love with either.
I've noticed that Apple Music now has separate metadata tags for Work > Movement > Name. So I can get each movement its own track (yet grouped together), and each track with its own name. So I can get a Gustav Holst album, with separate groups for First Suite in Eb, Suite #2 in F, and A Moorside Suite, and then I could choose specific movements like Chaconne from the first Suite. I've attached a picture (although I haven't finished this yet).
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I made a post about this in the digital audio forum, but I really wish that I could find headphones that did BOTH high-res lossless *AND* Spatial Audio. Apple's headphones can do Spatial Audio, but since they're bluetooth, they can't do lossless. I've seen wired headphones, which should be able to do high-res lossless, but probably don't support Spatial Audio.
I admit, I don't have that great hearing, and I'm not too much of an audiophile, so I don't know how much I'd be able to hear the difference or care. But I would like to at least try some good headphones and see if I can hear a difference.
I don't necessarily need a separate app as long as there's a *mode* that I can switch to that says, "hey, Apple, don't give me track/artist/album because that's meaningless in my world."
But I don't currently subscribe to Apple Music because of Apple's insistence that *their* metadata is better than *my* metadata (about 8000 tracks worth), and therefore overrides it, without its actually being better. Without careful, consistent metadata, the Music app fails as a library in which you can actually find things. I've been trying to make things work with classical in the Apple ecosystem since the gen-3 iPod, and it's always depended on lots and lots of editing the metadata. As soon as you log into Apple Music, that metadata is ignored and "Ludwig van Beethoven" goes back to being alphabetized under "L" in the composer list. If there was a way in "Music" to say, "given a choice, use the user's metadata, not the label's," then this would be an option for me.
Apple does have a standard for track metadata that can include all sorts of useful information -- soloist names, etc. -- but it doesn't seem possible to either edit or inspect such metadata.
I'm willing to try again with the new service, when it becomes available, but that's optimism speaking.
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Let's hope it gets incorporated with Apple Music. I am a big opera and classical fan and agree work needs to be done, but I don't want to pay more on top of my apple one subscription.
Following its acquisition of the classical music service Primephonic earlier this year, Apple's work on a new music app dedicated to classical music is ongoing, a recent job listing indicates.
Earlier this year, Apple announced that it had purchased the classical music streaming service Primephonic and would be folding it into Apple Music. Primephonic offered an "outstanding listening experience" with search and browse functionality that is specifically optimized for classical music, as well as handpicked recommendations and "contextual details on repertoire and recordings."
Apple said that with the acquisition of Primephonic, Apple Music subscribers would be provided with an improved classical music experience. This was said to start with Primephonic playlists and audio content, followed by a dedicated Primephonic experience with improved browsing and search capabilities by composer and repertoire, better classical music metadata, and more, at a later date.
Most strikingly, Apple said that it would launch a new Apple Music app dedicated to classical music in 2022. The app will combine Primephonic's user interface and specializations for classical music with Apple Music and features such as Lossless and Spatial Audio.
Apple is now looking to hire a UX Designer to work on the new app in the classical music team, according to a listing on Apple's jobs site. The role, located in London or Amsterdam, will be expected to "provide UX expertise and new perspectives specifically for Primephonic." The job listing goes on to explain that Apple is exploring and creating a distinct experience for classical music, including "visual, audial, and haptic" aspects.
While the job listing suggests that the Primephonic brand will persist for the new app, Primephonic was taken offline on September 7, 2021 and is no longer available for new subscribers. Current Primephonic subscribers received six months of Apple Music access for free with access to thousands of classical albums that support Lossless and Spatial Audio.
Primephonic's website now tells visitors: "We are working on an amazing new classical music experience from Apple for early next year." It is not clear to what extent the Primephonic brand will persist in the new app, if at all, and how heavily it will amalgamate with Apple Music.
(Thanks, Chris!)
Article Link: Apple Continuing Work on New Apple Music App for Classical Music
Here are some. Just keep in mind they are not cheap. Also, for high res you need a dac. Not sure of any dacs that support both hi res and atmos either
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They may be starting to roll this out. The new Brian Wilson album where he works with other artists is listed like this
1) I know at least in Apple's Music app in your library, you can specify the composer.
2) Apple Music now supports Work & Movement numbers. I've attached a screenshot. I haven't finished updating the metadata, but it's there at least at a foundational level.
3 & 4) Like I said for #1, Apple Music does have separate artist & composer fields. However, I would to have tracks have multiple artists, like Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. I want a "Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell" to reference each individual artist, not be a third, totally different artist. So if I want to see all and only Marvin Gaye songs, I want to see "Marvin & Tammi" as well. But have the option to search for "Marvin Gaye, but not Tammy Terrell". I'd also like a separate "soloist" and "featuring" field from the artist. For soloist, maybe do subheadings, too. If a song has a piano solo, French horn solo, and a cello solo, I'd like to be able to find all cello solos.
5) Apple Music has a year tag, mainly for the year the album was released.
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Considering the status of the iTunes app on every device, particularly on windows (being kind, a 2012 app), any development is definitely welcome. App crash, unavoidable unwanted suggestions of mainstream artists, 4-click-path to play classical music, crashes (both of app and UI during playing on windows 11), random access to airplay devices, features from 2010's future, skeomorphic interface (that display ....), slow response to any click ... c'mon Apple. C'mon!
This was the main reason I canceled my Apple Music subscription (and went with Primephonic, which I kept for a year or so before also canceling due to a persistent bug in the iPhone app, plus no native Mac player). I simply wanted Apple Music solely for classical music, but I was constantly bombarded with invitations to listen to music I had zero interest in (and quite frankly would prefer to not even be reminded of its existence). Furthermore, it seemed like I would have to drill down through numerous different screens to get to the classical category.
It was the virtual equivalent of walking into a record store, and having to walk through a huge rap/pop section to get to the classical area way in the back corner. Was it a huge problem? No, but it was inconvenient and annoying, and made for a poor user experience that pushed me away from the service.