Apple Music Classical Comes to iPad

[gank41]

This is still a VERY limited app. There isn't even an option to Play Next or Play Later, like in the Music App. No option to long press or Right Click on an Album to view ... anything.

So, if you're listening to an album and want to add another album to play after the current one, you're SOL.

 

[victorvictoria]

Finally I can sell/give away the thousands of LP's that have been cluttering two walls of our house, floor to ceiling!

 

[bluespark]

And Apple TV.

And CarPlay! It would be nice if my classical listening doesn't factor into the "For You" and similar playlists in Music, and a classical front-end app would be great for quickly choosing what to listen to.

 

[victorvictoria]

And CarPlay! It would be nice if my classical listening doesn't factor into the "For You" and similar playlists in Music, and a classical front-end app would be great for quickly choosing what to listen to.

Well, you know you could subscribe to Sirius/XM for less than Apple Music, and you'll hear all kinds of music you've never been exposed to, in every genre. (I have both, they saw me coming!)

 

[citysnaps]

So by that logic, they hold the Mac in even less regard since there not yet a macOS version?

Yes... apparently the sky really is falling this time for Apple with so many "Finally!" and "About time!" remarks. End times are near for civilization as we know it. Worldwide earthquakes and tsunamis, cats and dogs dancing together in the streets. Run for the hills!

 

[tomtad]

Did we really wait this long for an iPad version of this app that looks like THIS on the Now Playing Screen? Ridiculous.

View attachment 2313047

So much wasted space, and where's the album cover art?!? It's as if someone just tic'ed the box for iPad in Xcode and called it a day. Did they actually USE it to ensure it worked right??

Are you new to Apple in 2023?

 

[gwhizkids]

Well, I'd have thought the same about the iPad app. You take the iPhone code and add layouts that make more sense on a bigger screen. macOS is then you take the iPad code, make the windows more flexible in their sizing, and add Mac features such as the menu bar.

It's not zero work, but it's a bit strange that this iPad app took them so long.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not a coding issue but a licensing issue. That would explain why it has not been on CarPlay yet either.

 

[gwhizkids]

It's very difficult to expect 3rd party app creators work hard to develop apps for the iPad when it takes this long for Apple to bring an app to the iPad from the iPhone. Apple's actions, or lack thereof, speaks volumes for its real regard for the iPad.

I would be shocked if this is a technical problem. As I note just above, this smells more like a licensing issue with the various labels. It may be that they (the labels) just want this rolled out at a very measured pace.

 

[gank41]

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not a coding issue but a licensing issue. That would explain why it has not been on CarPlay yet either.

That would seem odd considering the same albums are already available in CarPlay in the Music app.

 

[gwhizkids]

That would seem odd considering the same albums are already available in CarPlay in the Music app.

It may, but artist IP issues are just generally weird. But there’s no way that they have held this up due to difficulties in implementing the app itself. Looks basically like a dirty Universal binary port.

 

[bluespark]

Well, you know you could subscribe to Sirius/XM for less than Apple Music, and you'll hear all kinds of music you've never been exposed to, in every genre. (I have both, they saw me coming!)

I do, but we're talking about a different product. Besides, my classical listening is considerably different from what Sirius typically programs.

 

[chucker23n1]

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is not a coding issue but a licensing issue. That would explain why it has not been on CarPlay yet either.

That's interesting, but the regular Music app does exist.

But yeah, maybe there's an odd licensing clause at play!

 

[one more]

Having tried Classical on iPhone, I still do not understand the benefits of separating it from the Music app. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[gwhizkids]

Having tried Classical on iPhone, I still do not understand the benefits of separating it from the Music app.

As a classical novice I appreciate the curated playlists and the introduction to classical series.

 

[alfonsog]

As a classical professional I like the separate app and I’d really like CarPlay integration. I pretty much only listen to classical music and Broadway, although lately I’ve been listening to some popular music and I just went to EDC Orlando with a boy I’m seeing, fascinating to hear how much influence classical form and styles are to popular and dance music. Armin van Buuren starts and I’m like why is he playing Samuel Barber’s Adagio from string quartet I just played past week and the boy I went with was wtf is that 😂 and all that EDM is based on minimalism and experimental music. I also hear a lot of basics in the hip hop and rap music my employees listen to at work and the older cook is always playing Queen or The Who which I figured out are British classic rock bands and it’s very interesting to me how the songs work. I had 0 rock or pop records growing up and I’m 50 now. The guy I’m dating is a swiftie too so heard that music on the 3 hour drive to Orlando and back.

 

[antiprotest]

I just installed it. Upon start it asks to connect to my library (to import classical music I assume). However, it imports only one album, which I recently bought. I have a lot of classic albums, but these don't show up in the Classical app. Am I overlooking something?

I already checked the genre/category of the albums missing.

Just regular Apple incompetence. You likely have done nothing wrong.

 

[CE3]

As a classical novice I appreciate the curated playlists and the introduction to classical series.

But why can’t curated playlists and series be integrated into the classical section of the Music app like every other genre? I mean, I’m glad people are enjoying it, and I can the benefit for both longtime lovers of classical music and those less familiar looking to discover more. But that could be said for any genre / category of music getting a dedicated app.

 

[Thisismattwade]

As a classical novice I appreciate the curated playlists and the introduction to classical series.

Roger that. A lot of my faves are in the Music app, but I appreciate the deep dives in Classical.

 

[Polinsky]

I wonder how many have actually used the app? Have a feeling that it's a flop since better alternatives are availible.

This may be the most illogical statement I've ever heard!

 

[tomtad]

I would love to have seen what this app would have looked like when Apple actually gave a damn about app design on the iPad. Here's Podcasts in iOS 6, and yes those spools rotated with the tape slowly moving the right spool as an episode went on.

 

[UltimaKilo]

The app is still clunky in its design, particularly when trying to find your “recently played” songs. However, it’s welcome news!

 

[kc9hzn]

Many apps are better than the Apple entries are. But they may be more complicated to use or cost more to acquire. Anyone with an Apple Music subscription gets access to this app. I doubt Apple was expecting this app to blow the doors off. It’s a niche product for a niche audience.

I don’t use it often, but I do have it on my phone. When it comes to classical music, it’s not the only thing I listen to, but I do appreciate classical music. I’ve got a good selection of it already on my phone, so I’ll probably just use the standard Apple Music app with my playlists for classical music already on my phone. I’ll probably also use it for finding spatial audio mixed classical music.

This app is best suited for finding specific albums, specific recordings/performances by specific orchestras/soloists, or specific works by specific composers. It is really good for a serious listening session if you want to sit down and listen to classical music with a great headset or great speaker setup. (It looks like the Apple Music Classical app is available on Android, so it would be awesome for serious listening on a FiiO digital music player or one of Sony’s high end Walkman devices running Android.) Since I don’t spend a whole lot of time just listening to music (though maybe I should spend more time with it, would be better than YouTube or social media), I don’t use the Apple Music Classical app all that often.

 

[nutmac]

I wonder how many have actually used the app? Have a feeling that it's a flop since better alternatives are availible.

I haven't tried too many alternatives, but I have used Spotify, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music. Apple Music Classical's curation, organized structure, and meta data set it apart from these 3, not to mention typically superior audio quality.

I do wish it was a bit smarter and rank selection from my favorite artists for certain pieces, however.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Does this increase hope that we'll see calculator come to iPad? Or is that still beyond technical possibilities

Taking bets. Which will we see first:

Calculator for iPad
Ability to place icons on Home Screen where you want them
More than 5GB base iCloud storage
More than 8GB base RAM in all Macs

I think they get increasingly likely but I’ll still probably die of old age before they do any of it.

 

[gglockner]

This is a good start.

First, to those who say "why not just use Apple Music", the main difference with classical music is how works are organized. First, the composer is far more important for classical music than other genres. Second, with classical music, it's standard to have many recordings with different performers for the same piece of music. Third, with classical music, it's critical to group the movements of a single work together.

Together, this is the benefit of Apple Music. For example, if you want to listen to Beethoven's 5th Symphony, you can find the various performances, rather than looking at tracks for the individual movements. This is also my biggest issue with many classical streaming radio programs, including Apple's own classical radio: they play a single movement, then switch to a completely unrelated work. This can be jarring with movements that were specifically composed to go directly into the next one ("attacca").

As for the iPad app, I'm still puzzled why Apple hasn't enabled it for Apple Silicon Macs. All this takes is a setting in the App Store catalog. Perhaps Apple will eventually release a Mac-native app, but they could have made the iPad version available today. This is unfortunate.