Apple Failed to Release a Classical Music App in 2022
In August 2021, Apple announced it had acquired classical music service Primephonic. At the time, Apple said it planned to release a dedicated classical music app in 2022, but the year has now ended without the app launching.
"Apple Music plans to launch a dedicated classical music app next year combining Primephonic's classical user interface that fans have grown to love with more added features," said an Apple Newsroom press release in 2021. Apple has not publicly addressed the plans since, and it's unclear if the app will be released in 2023.
Primephonic shut down in September 2021, with subscribers at the time receiving six months of access to Apple Music for free. If it ever launches, the Apple Classical app would serve as a replacement for Primephonic, providing users with a destination for streaming classical music from the likes of Beethoven and Mozart.
Hidden references to the Apple Classical app were discovered in a beta version of the Apple Music app for Android and in the iOS 15.5 beta last year. Even more references to the app were discovered in an XML file on Apple's servers last year.
Apple said it would incorporate the best features of Primephonic, including "better browsing and search capabilities by composer and by repertoire" and "detailed displays of classical music metadata," and it's possible that the company simply needs more time to work on this. Primephonic also compensated artists and other rights holders with a unique pay-per-second-listened model instead of a pay-per-play model like Apple Music, so perhaps Apple is still trying to figure out a suitable payout model for the Apple Classical app.
At this point, it's unclear if the Apple Classical app will be released at some point in 2023 or if the plans have been abandoned. We've reached out to Apple for comment on the situation and we'll update this story if we hear back.
Popular Stories
Apple released iOS 16.3 in late January following nearly six weeks of beta testing. The software update is available for the iPhone 8 and newer, and while it is a relatively minor update, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes.
Below, we've recapped new features in iOS 16.3, including support for physical security keys as a two-factor authentication option for...
Online retailer TigerDirect has slashed pricing on the M1 iPad Air in several colors, offering the base 64GB configuration for just $313.99 in Purple and Pink.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with TigerDirect. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
That's a savings of 48% compared to Apple's normal $599.00...
Apple's next device with an Apple silicon chip may not be a Mac or an iPad, but rather an advanced external display, according to recent reports.
The display, which is rumored to arrive this year, is expected to sit somewhere between the $1,599 Studio Display and the $4,999 Pro Display XDR – but more exact information about the device's positioning and price point is as yet unknown. While ...
Apple has discussed selling a new top-of-the-line iPhone alongside the Pro and Pro Max models in 2024 at the earliest, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Based on this timeframe, the device would be part of the iPhone 16 lineup or later.
In a September 2022 edition of his weekly "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said there was "potential" for an iPhone 15 Ultra to replace the iPhone 15 Pro...
Apple's VP of hardware engineering Matthew Costello and product marketing employee Alice Chan recently spoke with Men's Journal and TechCrunch about the new second-generation HomePod in wide-ranging interviews about the smart speaker.
Apple discontinued the original full-size HomePod in March 2021 after multiple reports indicated that sales of the speaker were lackluster, but Chan told Men's ...
Google's Chromium developers are working on an experimental web browser for iOS that would break Apple's browser engine restrictions, The Register reports.
The experimental browser, which is being actively pursued by developers, uses Google's Blink engine. Yet if Google attempted to release it on the App Store, it would not pass Apple's App Review process.
Apple's App Store rules dictate...
Apple appears to be preparing an iOS 16.3.1 update for the iPhone, based on evidence of the software in our website's analytics logs this week. It's unclear when the update will be released, but it will likely be available at some point in February.
The same logs have accurately foreshadowed the release of several previous updates, including iOS 16.0.3 and iOS 16.1.1 most recently, so they...
Today is the official launch day for the second-generation HomePod that was introduced in January, and we picked one up to compare it to the original HomePod that Apple discontinued in 2021.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Design wise, the second-generation HomePod looks a lot like the first-generation model, featuring the same rounded design and acoustic mesh...
Top Rated Comments
Composer
Work
Work revision
Work Composer Catalog
Opus
Number within opus
Work Movement
Work Transcription
Transcriber
Orchestrator
Performer(s)
Soloist
Conductor
Orchestra
Year/Date (of concert)
Release (Remaster)
Label
Venue
Record (CD) on which the work appears
…
I’m certainly missing other fields.
Apple Music only supports entire CD-s and not separate works or movements, let alone specific filters. Good luck finding anything on Apple Music with free text search.
Services like IDAGIO (and previously Primephonic) support custom search filters. I use the free version of IDAGIO (no subscription) to find particular records through a custom search with combination of the above fields in the filter, after which I find the CD(s) that contain what I’m looking for and then try to find/match them on Apple Music which is a tedious task since Apple Music often lacks detailed metadata to even find the corresponding CD, so I have to resort to track names or something more specific, etc. and hope I can eventually find a visual match for the “album” cover among the hundreds of results to eventually match it.
In short, Apple Music sucks big time for classical music fans.