All-New Apple Music App Spotted in iOS Beta Code

Signs of Apple's all-new Apple Music app have been spotted in the first beta version of iOS 15.5, potentially hinting that it could launch in the near future.

apple music
Rather than the likes of "Podcasts+" or "Mail+," which have been theorized by analysts as potential additions to the Apple One subscription bundle over the past year, Apple will bolster ‌Apple Music‌ by spinning off classical music to a separate app.

Last year, Apple announced its purchase of classical music streaming service Primephonic, which offered advanced search and browse features specially optimized for classical music. At the time, Apple said that the best elements of Primephonic would become a part of ‌‌Apple Music‌, providing subscribers with a significantly improved classical music experience.

Crucially, the company added that it will launch a new ‌Apple Music‌ app in 2022 dedicated to classical music, combining Primephonic's user interface and classical music specializations with the ‌‌Apple Music‌‌ library and features such as Lossless and Spatial Audio.

The name of the new, dedicated classical music app was not mentioned at the time. In February, the name of the new app was seemingly leaked by beta code: "Apple Classical." Lines of code from the ‌Apple Music‌ beta on Android also hinted at the ability to open a compatible track directly in the new, optimized service.

Now, the first beta of iOS 15.5, seeded to developers and public beta testers earlier this week, contains further signs of Apple Classical. iOS 15.5 contains "Open in Apple Classical" and "Open this in the new app designed for classical music" in the Music app code.

apple classical app
Late last year, Apple advertized a job for a UX Designer to work on the new standalone music app. According to the job description, the candidate was expected to "provide UX expertise and new perspectives specifically for Primephonic" in order to help realize a distinct experience for classical music that would include "visual, audial, and haptic" aspects, which may provide a hint of what the new app could offer.

While the job listing suggested that the Primephonic brand will persist in some form as part of Apple's classical offering, it seems possible that it could continue to exist as a sub-section of the new "Apple Classical" app.

With mounting evidence of preparations being put in place for the launch of Apple Classical, it seems that its release could be on the horizon for the near future, perhaps with the public release of iOS 15.5 or at WWDC in June.

Popular Stories

google drive for desktop1

Google to Roll Out New 'Drive for Desktop' App in the Coming Weeks, Replacing Backup & Sync and Drive File Stream Clients

Tuesday July 13, 2021 1:18 am PDT by
Earlier this year, Google announced that it planned to unify its Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync apps into a single Google Drive for desktop app. The company now says the new sync client will roll out "in the coming weeks" and has released additional information about what users can expect from the transition. To recap, there are currently two desktop sync solutions for using Google...