Hands-On With Apple's New Classical Music App

[Kimmo]

I'm looking forward to giving Apple Music Classical a try, but only after the macOS version becomes available.

In the meantime, for those using it, how is the quality of the AMC album art, biographies and track information?

For example, here's what I get from Qobuz for Hélène Grimaud's "Memory" on Deutsche Grammophon. I'd be interested to hear how Apple's Classical compares.

Thanks, and happy World Piano Day!

 

[carswell]

I’m just going to clarify something here because this is not entirely accurate. I think the search function is fantastic and you’ve missed the best feature.

If you search for a work eg. Beethoven symphony 2, you will be given search results. Under the Work section, you need to choose the corresponding Work. Then you select See All at the bottom of the Popular Recordings list.

If pull down a little on the Popular Recordings list that comes up, you can search within the Beethoven symphony no. 2 Popular Recordings list. eg. you can search for Karajan or Berlin or 1982.

I can’t remember what it’s called, but this is one of those unintuitive UI errors. Where you have to pull down to reveal the search box. This is my dad’s favourite feature, but he wont be able to remember to pull down to find the search box. I think you might’ve missed it, too.

Thanks for the tip! Just checked it out and you're right. Definitely an improvement though, as you note, one that's not obvious until you're clued in about it.

I still find it unconscionable that, say, Beethoven's second isn't among the works listed on the first search results screen and that it takes four screens to get to a list of the 500+ recordings, albeit one I now know how to search.

As reported in the La Campanella subthread, Classical's search engine does give better results than Music's, at least in some cases. That said, it's still fussy (took me three tries to get a decent list of La Campanella recordings), treats tracks and complete works as identical and doesn't always include every recording, including high-profile ones, that is in Apple's database. At present, I'm sticking with Music, which gives me access to all types of recordings and my full library, except when I need Classical's somewhat better search capabilities.

And I remain dumbfounded that the much touted lossless and hi-res remain irrelevant for most users, even owners of high-end Apple gear like the AirPods Max and popular systems like Sonos that are fully capable of handling the streams.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Apple today officially launched the much anticipated Apple Music Classical app on the iPhone, allowing Apple Music subscribers to download and access an app dedicated just to classical music. We went hands-on with the new app to give MacRumors readers a closer look.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

Design wise, the app is similar to Apple Music, but it is entirely dedicated to classical titles. The Browse section, for example, is broken down into Composers, Genres, Periods, Conductors, Orchestras, Soloists, Choirs, and Ensembles, making it easier to discover the specific classical content that you're looking for.

A Listen Now section offers up New Releases, Spatial Audio content, and other recommendations in various genres, plus there is a dedicated Library for aggregating saved content. A search function makes it simple to find something specific.

All in all, the app will be familiar to Apple Music subscribers, and it is in fact very simple. Unfortunately, it is limited to the iPhone at the current time, with no Mac or iPad version available. It's also not available on CarPlay.

Have you tried Apple Music Classical? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Article Link: Hands-On With Apple's New Classical Music App

Cool. If it works Apple can take what they have learned about databasing and make a database for the books we purchase from Apple. We could search and sort on things like author, date written, % completed reading, genre, audio vs. written, purchase date, public ranking, our ranking, etc. Maybe even a few data fields of our own. Wouldn't that be nice? Apple could call the app Books... /s

Seriously, Books is a disgrace. Thousands of Filemaker developers have been building better dbs since the 1980s - - using Apple's bombproof FM software. WTF?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

A shuffle mode for classical music? Have you had any exposure to classical music?

 

[ch1ptune]

Can’t believe no one’s mentioning the fact it’s not possible to play music from Apple Music Classical directly on HomePod. You can only AirPlay music from the app to the speakers, which makes it a nightmare to switch between the normal Music app and the classical one, as you’re controlling the HomePod with one app and then when you’d like to switch, you’re stuck with AirPlay. This means you can’t play something from one app and queue something else from the other app. What an absolute mess.

 

[jtdx99]

Why can’t I download songs on the Classical app? It’s a bummer that this is an iPhone only app

 

[Sphincty]

No Stokowski Mahler 2 (the studio one, not the live one). Unforgiveable!

I demand to know the meaning of this outrage at once!!

 

[brilliantthings]

I still find it unconscionable that, say, Beethoven's second isn't among the works listed on the first search results screen and that it takes four screens to get to a list of the 500+ recordings, albeit one I now know how to search.

That said, it's still fussy...

Yes, this is very true. It is the first release though and while I agree with the criticism, I think "unconscionable" might be a little extreme.
But it is fussy and buggy. A search for Shostakovich yesterday yielded "no results".

And I remain dumbfounded that the much touted lossless and hi-res remain irrelevant for most users, even owners of high-end Apple gear like the AirPods Max and popular systems like Sonos that are fully capable of handling the streams.

Unfortunately, I think this is like most Apple things and the rationale will become apparent with a subsequent hardware release. Homepod Pro? Lucky for me, I can't hear the difference.

 

[HDFan]

how is the quality of the AMC album art, biographies and track information?

For example, here's what I get from Qobuz for Hélène Grimaud's "Memory" on Deutsche Grammophon.

 

[brilliantthings]

Can’t believe no one’s mentioning the fact it’s not possible to play music from Apple Music Classical directly on HomePod. You can only AirPlay music from the app to the speakers, which makes it a nightmare to switch between the normal Music app and the classical one, as you’re controlling the HomePod with one app and then when you’d like to switch, you’re stuck with AirPlay. This means you can’t play something from one app and queue something else from the other app. What an absolute mess.

What would it look like to play music "directly on Homepod"? I'm all in with Sonos so I'm not familiar with this.

 

[applezulu]

Little confused why they couldn’t get it going in CarPlay, iPad and Mac for launch. Is the code really that different than the existing Music app?

Apple Music is a huge database, and Apple Music Classical is huge database that is significantly more complicated. Better they should get it out there first on a single OS to make sure the back end is working as intended before adding more front-end variables like different user interfaces on iPad, AppleTV, Mac and in CarPlay. Those can come later.

The same goes for questions like why you can't download music for offline listening in the app. Imagine on Day 1 all the Classical Music nerds, many of whom are very much in the mindset of collecting recordings, all deciding to start downloading Beethoven's complete symphonies from multiple performers, and multiple versions of Wagner's Ring Cycle, etc. The servers would choke on these unnecessary simultaneous downloads, and the idle online chatter would be about how the system is sooo slow. Better to let them get used to the idea that these recordings are always there and always available, and you don't actually need to download massive libraries of material for "offline listening." In this paradigm, offline listening is for saving a few albums for when you're getting on a plane or taking a back-country drive where cell reception will be spotty.

The same goes double for all the people who are upset that this app doesn't work for their own libraries of ripped CDs. The error rate in meta data for those libraries would be cataclysmic. Maybe they can take that on later, too, but not when they're just trying to get the app out there and working for the streaming service. Also, most of your CDs will already be in the Apple Music catalog, possibly at a better-than-CD sound quality, anyway.

 

[applezulu]

God I miss iTunes.

It's your lucky day, then. It's still on your iPhone and iPad. Look for iTunes Store. It's on your Mac. Open the Music app and look on the left side for iTunes Store.

 

[Phogro]

Yes, I was happy to find "The Story of Classical", too. But with each section being an hour or so, it's disappointing that it doesn't remember your place in each track.

Yeah this is super disappointing. I also had trouble with the default music navigation when a podcast style of jumping 15 seconds back to catch something you missed him say would make a lot of sense.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Can’t believe no one’s mentioning the fact it’s not possible to play music from Apple Music Classical directly on HomePod. You can only AirPlay music from the app to the speakers, which makes it a nightmare to switch between the normal Music app and the classical one, as you’re controlling the HomePod with one app and then when you’d like to switch, you’re stuck with AirPlay. This means you can’t play something from one app and queue something else from the other app. What an absolute mess.

That's the Apple Music way..

 

[syklee26]

You can install the iPhone app on the iPad, just like you can with any other iPhone app. I will just show up in an iPhone-shaped window.

I know that but is that the best Apple can do?

 

[Boutsik]

Apple today officially launched the much anticipated Apple Music Classical app on the iPhone, allowing Apple Music subscribers to download and access an app dedicated just to classical music. We went hands-on with the new app to give MacRumors readers a closer look.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

Design wise, the app is similar to Apple Music, but it is entirely dedicated to classical titles. The Browse section, for example, is broken down into Composers, Genres, Periods, Conductors, Orchestras, Soloists, Choirs, and Ensembles, making it easier to discover the specific classical content that you're looking for.

A Listen Now section offers up New Releases, Spatial Audio content, and other recommendations in various genres, plus there is a dedicated Library for aggregating saved content. A search function makes it simple to find something specific.

All in all, the app will be familiar to Apple Music subscribers, and it is in fact very simple. Unfortunately, it is limited to the iPhone at the current time, with no Mac or iPad version available. It's also not available on CarPlay.

Have you tried Apple Music Classical? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Article Link: Hands-On With Apple's New Classical Music App

Here's my questions: If I save a piece of Classical Music in the C.M. App, will I be able to play it through APPLE MUSIC? Will my SONOS be able to access it? Or do I have to find the piece I'm interested in--and then copy and paste over to APPLE MUSIC to hear it through Sonos. I know I can 'airplay it" but that option is always a little flimsy and sometimes simply doesn't work.

I guess my disappointment is that it's only on the phone and yet offers high res capability. How much better to let me stream it like I stream Apple Music.

Also, searching for pieces, typing in composers etc, would be so so so much better if I could use my iPad or MACBOOK keyboards and not my old thumbs.

I'm glad that they finally released it--but I'm sticking with TIDAL until they make it way more accessible.

 

[Allyance]

Love it, been playing with it all afternoon.

Although currently there is no app on ATV, I can easily assign the output to the ATV 4K attached to my main sound system (and Homepod). Use current Music icon and select ‘Listen Now’. Music and album info is displayed as normal.

 

[Allyance]

Here's my questions: If I save a piece of Classical Music in the C.M. App, will I be able to play it through APPLE MUSIC? Will my SONOS be able to access it? Or do I have to find the piece I'm interested in--and then copy and paste over to APPLE MUSIC to hear it through Sonos. I know I can 'airplay it" but that option is always a little flimsy and sometimes simply doesn't work.

I guess my disappointment is that it's only on the phone and yet offers high res capability. How much better to let me stream it like I stream Apple Music.

Also, searching for pieces, typing in composers etc, would be so so so much better if I could use my iPad or MACBOOK keyboards and not my old thumbs.

I'm glad that they finally released it--but I'm sticking with TIDAL until they make it way more accessible.

Yes, complete library shows up in both. Shares your existing library, I have always wanted to isolate the Classical from rest of library.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Ranked #1 on App Store. Woah!

 

[darngooddesign]

Ranked #1 on App Store. Woah!

View attachment 2180976

Lots of people suffering from FOMO… fear of missing orchestras.

 

[Kimmo]

View attachment 2180892View attachment 2180893

Looks good. Thanks.

 

[Phuz01]

I bit the bullet last year and deleted my library of ripped CDs. It’s so much less hassle. Still buying physical CDs and the occasional bit of vinyl for listening only at home.

I’ve contemplated doing this with the titles that are available on Apple Music. My concern is the specialty label recordings that aren’t available for streaming and international recordings that are not available to stream in the US. I have approximately 10,000 tracks (20% of my library) that would fall into one of those two categories, and I’m afraid of the impact merging an Apple Music library with these titles would have on the metadata that I’ve added to each track and the availability of these tracks across my devices. For the time being, keeping them separate and syncing them to my various devices seems to be the best path forward.

 

[tubular]

For the time being, keeping them separate and syncing them to my various devices seems to be the best path forward.

That's the path I'm taking for now. Just too much time spent editing metadata to put it at risk.

 

[Confused-User]

Apple Music is a huge database, and Apple Music Classical is huge database that is significantly more complicated. Better they should get it out there first on a single OS to make sure the back end is working as intended before adding more front-end variables like different user interfaces on iPad, AppleTV, Mac and in CarPlay. Those can come later.

That makes no sense. Those aspects of the system are almost completely separate from each other. Likewise, you can be sure there's (almost?) no overlap between the app designers and the DB maintainers. Totally separate jobs and skillsets.

The same goes double for all the people who are upset that this app doesn't work for their own libraries of ripped CDs. The error rate in meta data for those libraries would be cataclysmic. Maybe they can take that on later, too, but not when they're just trying to get the app out there and working for the streaming service. Also, most of your CDs will already be in the Apple Music catalog, possibly at a better-than-CD sound quality, anyway.

Ridiculous. You know nothing about my metadata, and in any case, nobody (especially including me) thinks it's Apple's job to fix it.

 

[firemenhon]

I am using iOS 16.2 iPhone 13 mini , why I can't find the Apple Music classical at App Store , or I must update to iOS 16.4 first ? thanks all of you