Apple Music Classical Begins Launching for iPhone Users Around the World

[cdweir]

Some things good some not so good with this launch.
Fantastic to find a work and play it and its movements, or click title and opus and find alternative recordings. Or scroll to bottom to find the whole album if its a compilation of other works by same or other composers. (you can see why classical music becomes so complicated).

But:
1. In my library I cannot sort by composer (an absolute must for me).
2. Search: cannot search MY library (a basic requirement). I keep going back to the Apple music app for this
3. Layout - great to have full title and artists but I have already noticed for example the Solti Ring Cycle does not have the Act/Scene headers that are present in main AM app
4. The original Primephonic app often had a PDF of the original sleeve notes and booklet. Was great for working through the Suzuki Bach Cantata cycle. That's no longer available which is really disappointing.

Hoping this is a slow launch with more to come. Primephonic was really outstanding and AM Classical needs a lot more work.


Edit: after all the wait it’s so poor. Just checked Idagio and Quobuz both great. Good apps and web player. DIGITAL BOOKLETS! I’m going Idagio 🎼

 

[videosoul]

Sadly, no booklets or liner notes. Looks like I’ll be staying with Qobuz for a while longer…

As I have now discovered for myself. This is a huge failure in my opinion.

I suppose they are all still there if one wishes to pay for a physical copy... but it seems mad to me that all this content isn't also doubled up in the digital sphere. Same applies to regular Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, and Netflix (where are the DVD extras?!) et al.

 

[Kimmo]

Rubbish. Bandwith Bluetooth is insufficiënt for losless [sic].

With regard to the standard Bluetooth codec (SBC) and its maximum data rate of 328 kbps, you're right.

But my point was that Apple should offer one of the newer codecs that support higher data rates.

There's Sony's LDAC codec. It supports high-resolution audio up to 32-bit/96kHz over Bluetooth at up to 990 kbps. LDAC received a "hi-res audio wireless" certification from the Japan Audio Society in 2019.

Qualcomm introduced aptX Lossless 18 months ago. It supports lossless CD quality (16 bit/44.1 kHz) and can stream over 1 mbps.

If Apple doesn't want to license, they should develop their own.

Sony Corporation - LDAC™ developer site | Uncompromising wireless listening technology from Sony. LDAC provides music experiences with supreme sound quality.

Developers site of LDAC which is a state of the art audio technology that allows you to enjoy music in Hi-Res sound quality. It can transmit approximately three times the amount of data than can be done with conventional Bluetooth transmissions.

www.sony.net

Qualcomm adds Bluetooth Lossless Audio Technology to Snapdragon Sound | Qualcomm

Qualcomm has added Bluetooth Lossless Audio Technology to its Snapdragon Sound platform to support high-quality, low-latency audio streaming over Bluetooth.

www.qualcomm.com

LDAC: what is it? How can you get it? LDAC vs aptX

Sony’s ‘hi-res’ wireless audio codec explained

www.whathifi.com

Qualcomm says aptX Lossless can deliver lossless CD-quality audio over Bluetooth

Lossless audio over Bluetooth looks to be on the horizon

www.whathifi.com

 

[MK500]

Since there seems to be some confusion:

- It works on iPad (just with crummy iPhone sized UI in middle)
- It is indeed lossless using the standard methods (example: camera kit usb to DAC)
- Since the normal tapping of the “Lossless” tag to see sampling rate doesn’t work here as it does in Apple Music I can confirm from tests:

Sampling rate varies from 44.1kHz to 88.2 (weird) and 96 as well. I’m guessing I’d find some 192 if I searched enough.

EDIT: Indeed the Alice Sara Ott album apple used for their marketing video comes up as 192kHz and sounds great.

You can see on my RME DAC screen it says INT 96, that means that track is at a sampling rate of 96 (Hi-Res lossless).

 

[JTK Awesome]

I was somehow impressed that the "Library" tab figured out all the classical music albums I already had.

I guess I'm easily amused.

 

[Agathon]

How do you figure this? If I organise my AM library by Artist - I end up with Stravinsky under B for the Berlin Philharmonic! Apparently they are noted as the 'artist' and not Stravinsky. The Stravinsky album features next to Joyce Didonato's Eden, where the 'artist' is 'Beautiful Chorus'. The organisation is totally useless and on Apple Classical, as you say, it is even worse. Sorting is not enough (even if it would work, we'd have to scroll like mad) All we need is to be able to create our own folders to organise albums ...

I don't use regular Apple Music for classical for the reasons you state here. I Apple Music for all the other music I listen to, where sorting by Artist works well. If I play classical through Apple Music, I just search and stream, but mostly I rely on my roomful of CDs and LPs.