iPhone Still Using Apple Music Classical?

[mansplains]

Apple Music Classical was in the works for years, allegedly. I fail to understand how this app could take so long to develop; it is a skin of Apple Music with slight improvements in searching, and some nicer art instead of corporate pop and rap stars plastered everywhere.

All of the music I've searched for in AMC is as easily accessible in AM, and all music added in AMC is added to AM, begging the question as to why this app exists separately. You can't use AMC independent of AM either, try uninstalling AM and AMC won't work. I had assumed the point of separate app is to aid in sandboxing libraries, or at least grant the option. I don't want to hear classical when I shuffle my AM library generally.

I assumed the lack of iPad and Mac support would be rectified quickly, but i's already been slightly over five months. It's not like AM dev team is indie. Why can't you run the iOS app on M1 systems anyway?

Then other silly things, no shuffle, curated playlists aren't alphabetized (or have sort option), and no ability to filter vocal pieces out. No one cares about concert band instruments so orchestra and vocal are heavily emphasized.

All in all, I was excited for this app and after trying to get regular use since release, it has been a disappointment. I have stopped using it for now, anyone else feeling similar? If you feel the opposite, what's keeping you on AMC?

 

[Abazigal]

I use it every now and then to play classical music as background noise when working. I don't normally listen to classical music, so I don't really have any opinions on whether the app is well-designed or not. The absence of an iPad app is annoying, but since I typically airplay it to my HomePod mini, I find myself streaming it more often from my phone than anything else. And maybe that's the envisioned use case?

 

[Eric Idle]

Apple Music Classical was in the works for years, allegedly. I fail to understand how this app could take so long to develop; it is a skin of Apple Music with slight improvements in searching, and some nicer art instead of corporate pop and rap stars plastered everywhere.

All of the music I've searched for in AMC is as easily accessible in AM, and all music added in AMC is added to AM, begging the question as to why this app exists separately. You can't use AMC independent of AM either, try uninstalling AM and AMC won't work. I had assumed the point of separate app is to aid in sandboxing libraries, or at least grant the option. I don't want to hear classical when I shuffle my AM library generally.

I assumed the lack of iPad and Mac support would be rectified quickly, but i's already been slightly over five months. It's not like AM dev team is indie. Why can't you run the iOS app on M1 systems anyway?

Then other silly things, no shuffle, curated playlists aren't alphabetized (or have sort option), and no ability to filter vocal pieces out. No one cares about concert band instruments so orchestra and vocal are heavily emphasized.

All in all, I was excited for this app and after trying to get regular use since release, it has been a disappointment. I have stopped using it for now, anyone else feeling similar? If you feel the opposite, what's keeping you on AMC?

Just another half assed effort from Apple. I pretty much expect that with everything nowadays.

 

[lamboaudi4]

In my experience having a separate classical app was very beneficial. I'm not much of an Apple Music user and I never had much success with the Apple Music search bar for any type of music, but with the classical app I really appreciated the fact that you are able to search by composers and pieces and find different interpretations of the same piece quite easily. Maybe as you say it is biased towards vocal and orchestral pieces, because I'm primarly a vocal music listener and it was extremely helpful for searching for Schubert Lieder for example.

I must say though, it is inexcusable that there is no macOS nor iPad version. There's definitely some underfunding going on in the Mac department and the Music app on my Mac is... just displeasing to use. Not exaggerating when I say the UI is the one thing that is keeping me from completely switching from Spotify.

 

[nburwell]

To be honest, I sometimes forget that I have the app installed on my phone. I did use often, usually in the morning when working, but now that it’s in a folder, I oftentimes just plan forget it’s there.

 

[MacMan2013]

Occasionally I use it. But I would tend to listen to classical music at home not on the go, an my go to device for music at home is my iPad. The app works on iPad but isn't configured for it making it a bit hard to use. I'd use it more with a proper iPad version.

 

[meenu26]

As someone who listens to classical music almost exclusively, I abandoned Apple Music Classical after a 3-month trial and went back to Idagio. Idagio has much better metadata and recommendations (AMC was recommending "Opus 52" to me - what the hell is that supposed to mean?), and much better search results too.

Feels half-assed from Apple's part. Despite the Primephonic acquisition, I feel like they still don't actually "understand" classical music at all. Sure, it's better than Spotify, but it's nowhere near a dedicated classical music app like Idagio.