Apple Laying Groundwork for Apple Music Classical Feature Launching in 2022

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.

Top Rated Comments

TheDailyApple Avatar
9 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
9 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
9 months ago
I’m a jazz head… how about one for us
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThisBougieLife Avatar
9 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)
Supermallet Avatar
9 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)
Feyl Avatar
9 months ago
And when are they gonna make their current crappy apps better? And what about that absolute nightmare on Windows? I wonder if someone at Apple realize how much stuff they’re doing while not doing enough.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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