Apple Laying Groundwork for Apple Music Classical Feature Launching in 2022

[MacRumors]

Apple appears to be preparing for the upcoming launch of Apple Music Classical, a standalone classical music app that will be available alongside the Apple Music app.

Mentions of Apple Classical have appeared in backend code used by Apple, suggesting that we could perhaps be seeing Apple Music Classical debut in the near future.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1574917562512642048

Apple Music Classical will be built around Primephonic, a classical music service that Apple purchased more than a year ago. When Apple acquired Primephonic, the company promised an improved classical music experience for Apple Music subscribers.

Apple said there would be a "dedicated classical music app" coming in 2022, with the app combining Primephonic's classical user interface with "more added features." With roughly 90 days to go until the end of the year, there isn't a lot of time left for Apple to make the promised 2022 timeline.

There are no new signs of Apple Music Classical that have been added in the iOS 16.1 beta as of yet, so Apple could be saving it for a future iOS 16 release that's planned before the end of the year.

Article Link: Apple Laying Groundwork for Apple Music Classical Feature Launching in 2022

 

[TheDailyApple]

Can’t wait! This is probably the thing I’ve most anticipated from Apple this year.

 

[MrRom92]

As someone who regularly listens to classical, I don’t want this nor do I see the appeal of breaking this out into its own app/service in the slightest when whatever they’re hoping to implement in this app could just be brought to regular old Apple Music.

Also, how can Apple claim to cater to classical music fans when they don’t support FLAC? Classical connoisseurs maintain their own digital libraries and use FLAC as standard. Not that ALAC nonsense.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

I still think it's weird to have a dedicated app for this. I wish they could just make much-needed improvements to the Music app. What I like about Qobuz is that it's great for classical in terms of metadata and the organizing of tracks in albums, but I can also use it for other genres.

Additionally, this makes having a cohesive library and set of playlists across genres a bit convoluted.

@MrRom92 Can agree. Part of the reason I mainly use Roon now is because it plays FLAC and I don't have to bother converting (it also allows for the best integration of my downloaded/ripped music with streaming that I've seen so far, superior to Apple Music and Audirvana).

 

[ErikGrim]

How about you FTFAM on the Mac?

 

[whsbuss]

I’m a jazz head… how about one for us

 

[ErikGrim]

As someone who regularly listens to classical, I don’t want this nor do I see the appeal of breaking this out into its own app/service in the slightest when whatever they’re hoping to implement in this app could just be brought to regular old Apple Music.

Also, how can Apple claim to cater to classical music fans when they don’t support FLAC? Classical connoisseurs maintain their own digital libraries and use FLAC as standard. Not that ALAC nonsense.

Why? It's a non issue to convert FLAC to ALAC, which has much broader support.

 

[Angel Martin]

As someone who regularly listens to classical, I don’t want this nor do I see the appeal of breaking this out into its own app/service in the slightest when whatever they’re hoping to implement in this app could just be brought to regular old Apple Music.

Also, how can Apple claim to cater to classical music fans when they don’t support FLAC? Classical connoisseurs maintain their own digital libraries and use FLAC as standard. Not that ALAC nonsense.

Anyone that is a huge fan will not need this service. But this will probably broaden some horizons and introduce many young people to such an incredible experience. I just don't see why you would disparage sharing Classical Music. So don't subscribe. Why deny others?

 

[Cromulent]

I've been looking forward to this for some time. I'm also hoping that Apple will refresh the UI of the current Apple Music app, as it could do with an upgrade.

I'll be so happy if it comes out this year.

 

[Feyl]

And when are they gonna make their current crappy apps better? And what about that absolute nightmare on Windows? I wonder if someone at Apple realize how much stuff they’re doing while not doing enough.

 

[Cromulent]

Also, how can Apple claim to cater to classical music fans when they don’t support FLAC? Classical connoisseurs maintain their own digital libraries and use FLAC as standard. Not that ALAC nonsense.

Does it matter? FLAC and ALAC have the same quality if they have the same input. OK, it might take a little while to convert from FLAC to ALAC, but you only need to do it once and back up both FLAC and ALAC files, so you never need to worry again.

 

[Supermallet]

If this is streaming only then it had better be included in existing Apple Music/Apple One subscriptions.

As for ALAC, who cares? It’s just as lossless as FLAC and the two formats can be converted back and forth without any data loss. Only a complete pedant would be bothered by it.

 

[Kimmo]

I still think it's weird to have a dedicated app for this. I wish they could just make much-needed improvements to the Music app. What I like about Qobuz is that it's great for classical in terms of metadata and the organizing of tracks in albums, but I can also use it for other genres.

Additionally, this makes having a cohesive library and set of playlists across genres a bit convoluted.

@MrRom92 Can agree. Part of the reason I mainly use Roon now is because it plays FLAC and I don't have to bother converting (it also allows for the best integration of my downloaded/ripped music with streaming that I've seen so far, superior to Apple Music and Audirvana).

I agree with you about Qobuz.

I've been really impressed with their catalogue of classical and jazz, as well as rock an alternative music. File quality is excellent.

Qobuz, through a pair of Neumann monitors, is really sweet. 😀

 

[jchap]

As a frequent listener of classical music from all eras, one of the things I really despise about Apple Music in its current form is that the longer song titles used in many classical music pieces are poorly supported. If a new dedicated app fixes that, I'm all for it.

Long song names on macOS, iOS and iPadOS are miserable to look at, IMHO. They get cut off, scroll slowly, etc. There's no quick way to see important information about composers, albums, opus, key, performers, recording dates and so on without digging around. A lot of classical music listeners who "dig deep" and like to know more about what they're listening to would be interested in a better way to view this information, I feel.

 

[jchap]

And when are they gonna make their current crappy apps better? And what about that absolute nightmare on Windows? I wonder if someone at Apple realize how much stuff they’re doing while not doing enough.

Yes, the Apple Music app never really seemed to be the most useable thing in the world. It needs much more work in terms of the user interface and experience, despite the fact that it's the main portal to their paid services that are apparently raking in so much money for Apple.

 

[bommai]

As someone who regularly listens to classical, I don’t want this nor do I see the appeal of breaking this out into its own app/service in the slightest when whatever they’re hoping to implement in this app could just be brought to regular old Apple Music.

Also, how can Apple claim to cater to classical music fans when they don’t support FLAC? Classical connoisseurs maintain their own digital libraries and use FLAC as standard. Not that ALAC nonsense.

Speak for yourself. I use DSD and ALAC. fLAC has no advantage. ALAC is open source now.

 

[bLackjackj]

We know how this story ends in 12 months:

Macrumors 2023: Apple Integrates Classical Music App Into Apple Music App. Apple says "this will enhance the listening experience".

aka: Nobody tuned in to the add-on App.

 

[MrRom92]

Why? It's a non issue to convert FLAC to ALAC, which has much broader support.

It is an issue, because it’s an inferior format. This has been discussed and explained ad nauseum. Just say NO to ALAC.

 

[MrRom92]

Anyone that is a huge fan will not need this service. But this will probably broaden some horizons and introduce many young people to such an incredible experience. I just don't see why you would disparage sharing Classical Music. So don't subscribe. Why deny others?

Wouldn’t it also broaden horizons if they simply pushed classical recordings in the services that young people are already using?

 

[MrRom92]

Does it matter? FLAC and ALAC have the same quality if they have the same input. OK, it might take a little while to convert from FLAC to ALAC, but you only need to do it once and back up both FLAC and ALAC files, so you never need to worry again.

It does matter, why would I waste an extra 4TB of space and god knows how long for a conversion just to store a second copy of my library in an Apple friendly format? Why would I want to maintain double the amount of data? Apple should simply support what the rest of the music industry is actually using. Hint: it’s not ALAC

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Lmao they're not doing this to broaden horizons. They're doing this so people will have another subscription.

 

[MrRom92]

Speak for yourself. I use DSD and ALAC. fLAC has no advantage. ALAC is open source now.

FLAC has NO advantage? On what planet is this true? That’s demonstrably false. If you are using ALAC I hate to say it, but you are in a very small minority. If I may ask, what would be the benefit to using ALAC if Apple simply supported both?

 

[nybear31]

Can’t wait! This is probably the thing I’ve most anticipated from Apple this year.

Me too! I really hope Apple releases an app for jazz next. The algorithm for jazz is a mess right now but it was good at one time many years ago.

 

[BellSystem]

This is so dumb. Never saw a Sam Goody Classical store across from a Sam Goody. Who makes these bone head choices?

 

[trhoffmann]

This “update” one year after the announced Primephonic acquisition tells us nothing new. Given that Primephonic already had a decent working iOS/iPadOS app at the time of the acquisition, one year is a very long time to wait for a “new” Apple version.

I’m still wondering whether or not there will also be an Android app since many Primephonic subscribers were on Android, and whether or not there will also be a web player. Primephonic’s web player left a lot to be desired. It was buggy and unreliable.