Apple Laying Groundwork for Apple Music Classical Feature Launching in 2022 - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Laying Groundwork for Apple Music Classical Feature Launching in 2022

by

Apple appears to be preparing for the upcoming launch of Apple Music Classical, a standalone classical music app that will be available alongside the ‌Apple Music‌ app.

apple music
Mentions of Apple Classical have appeared in backend code used by Apple, suggesting that we could perhaps be seeing ‌Apple Music‌ Classical debut in the near future.


‌Apple Music‌ Classical will be built around Primephonic, a classical music service that Apple purchased more than a year ago. When Apple acquired Primephonic, the company promised an improved classical music experience for ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers.

Apple said there would be a "dedicated classical music app" coming in 2022, with the app combining Primephonic's classical user interface with "more added features." With roughly 90 days to go until the end of the year, there isn't a lot of time left for Apple to make the promised 2022 timeline.

There are no new signs of ‌Apple Music‌ Classical that have been added in the iOS 16.1 beta as of yet, so Apple could be saving it for a future iOS 16 release that's planned before the end of the year.

Tag: Classical Music

Popular Stories

Apple Event Logo

Apple Unveiled Four New Products Today

Tuesday August 25, 2026 8:39 am PDT by
Apple today unveiled a new Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro chip options, a new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chip options, a new version of the Polishing Cloth with a lower price, and updated Magic Keyboards for Macs. To learn more about these products, read our coverage below: Apple Announces New Mac Mini With M6 and M5 Pro Chips and More Apple Unveils New Mac Studio With M5 Max and M5...
Read Full Article
apple magic keyboard with glyphs 2026 refresh

Apple Quietly Refreshes Magic Keyboards

Tuesday August 25, 2026 7:22 am PDT by
Apple today quietly introduced updated Magic Keyboard models with revised U.S. English key labeling. On the new keyboards, the tab, caps lock, shift, return, and delete keycaps are labeled with glyphs rather than edge text. On the full-size models with a numeric keypad, the change goes further, with the home, page up, page down, end, clear, and enter keys also swapping their text labels for...
Read Full Article • 152 comments
Apple Logo Gradient 16x9 1

Apple Just Made an Extremely Rare Product Announcement

Thursday August 27, 2026 7:58 am PDT by
The new Mac mini and Mac Studio models unveiled by Apple this week are the company's first new Macs announced in August since 2020. It is extremely rare for Apple to announce new products of any kind in August, excluding smaller things like new color options and accessories. As mentioned, Apple's last notable August product announcement was in 2020, when it updated the 27-inch iMac and a...
Read Full Article

Top Rated Comments

TheDailyApple Avatar
TheDailyApple
51 months ago
Can’t wait! This is probably the thing I’ve most anticipated from Apple this year.
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Angel Martin Avatar
Angel Martin
51 months ago

As someone who regularly listens to classical, I don’t want this nor do I see the appeal of breaking this out into its own app/service in the slightest when whatever they’re hoping to implement in this app could just be brought to regular old Apple Music.

Also, how can Apple claim to cater to classical music fans when they don’t support FLAC? Classical connoisseurs maintain their own digital libraries and use FLAC as standard. Not that ALAC nonsense.
Anyone that is a huge fan will not need this service. But this will probably broaden some horizons and introduce many young people to such an incredible experience. I just don't see why you would disparage sharing Classical Music. So don't subscribe. Why deny others?
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
whsbuss Avatar
whsbuss
51 months ago
I’m a jazz head… how about one for us
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
Supermallet
51 months ago
If this is streaming only then it had better be included in existing Apple Music/Apple One subscriptions.

As for ALAC, who cares? It’s just as lossless as FLAC and the two formats can be converted back and forth without any data loss. Only a complete pedant would be bothered by it.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThisBougieLife Avatar
ThisBougieLife
51 months ago
I still think it's weird to have a dedicated app for this. I wish they could just make much-needed improvements to the Music app. What I like about Qobuz is that it's great for classical in terms of metadata and the organizing of tracks in albums, but I can also use it for other genres.

Additionally, this makes having a cohesive library and set of playlists across genres a bit convoluted.

@MrRom92 Can agree. Part of the reason I mainly use Roon now is because it plays FLAC and I don't have to bother converting (it also allows for the best integration of my downloaded/ripped music with streaming that I've seen so far, superior to Apple Music and Audirvana).
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThisBougieLife Avatar
ThisBougieLife
51 months ago
Lmao they're not doing this to broaden horizons. They're doing this so people will have another subscription.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments