Apple has finally delivered on its promise to release a dedicated classical app. It had promised to do so when it acquired Primephonic in 2021, but it has been a long time coming.
Now, Apple is officially launching Apple Music Classical on March 28, 2023, and it comes as a standalone iOS app that’s available to all existing Apple Music subscribers. Users will need an iPhone running iOS 15.4 or later in order to access the new app, although it’s possible Android owners will see a version of it “coming soon.”
The new app includes access to Apple’s curated collection of over five million tracks spanning new releases and celebrated masterpieces, including dozens of filtered Essentials playlists and thousands of exclusive albums. It’s also designed to make it easy for beginners to get started with the genre, thanks to hundreds of ‘deep-dive guides’ for many key works and insightful composer biographies.
In addition, it will feature ‘thousands of recordings’ in immersive spatial audio with Dolby Atmos and up to 192 kHz/24 bit high-resolution lossless audio quality. Plus, it will feature complete and accurate metadata.
This is all part of a push to entice older music lovers who don’t subscribe to streaming services (especially ones that don’t serve classical well), as well as the young generation of listeners who are looking for ways to expand their repertoires. It’s also one of the ways Apple is trying to differentiate itself from the competition – which include Deezer and TikTok, which have both built a loyal following in this genre.