KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — Apple's classical music app Apple Music Classical just dropped and differentiates itself from its competitors in both good and bad ways.
The same design philosophy is evident across both apps — clean, sleek, very much in love of boxes.
What must have puzzled many people is why a separate app was needed when the Apple Music service already has classical music as a separate genre category within the service.
The classical music offerings on Apple Music are still there and won't be going anywhere so is it a case of duplication? What's the game here?
Here's a little history lesson. Once upon a time there was a streaming service dedicated entirely to classical music called Primephonic that was available in 150 countries. Apple bought it in 2021.
Then-CTO of Primephonic told Mixphonic that its primary user base was aged 55 and older, mostly higher educated and fairly well off.
A rather attractive demographic that would balance out Apple's appeal to the younger set, I would call that.
Now back to why apparently these users would need another app. Classical music and the way it's broken down and catalogued is different from say, the average pop music library.
For instance, if you wanted a specific Ariana Grande song you would just look up said song and there would not be that many versions, barring perhaps a remix or two or “live” versions.
With classical music, you would find not one but hundreds or more variations of a symphony or aria.
Apple Music Classical aims to not just offer audio quality of up to 192kHz at 24-bit, but the ability to search via various categories, including by works, instrument, composer or a specific artist.
I find this approach similar to the way libraries or even Yahoo used to work — tracking down a piece by determining how it would be categorised.
For people used to just searching “artist name+song title” it would be rather vexing.
I am a fan of bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, particularly his interpretations of German lieder.
What annoyed me was that in Apple Music, I could easily search for my favourite Quasthoff performance, Schubert's Du Bist Die Ruh but a simple search turned up... nothing.
Instead I first had to search for Thomas Quasthoff, then look at all his releases until I found the album the recording was on, which was Schubert Lieder with Orchestra.
What I did appreciate however was the app's approach to educating listeners not already well-versed in the history of classical music with its The Story of Classical section.
It's a lovely nine-part audio commentary that guides listeners through the history and terminology of the genre. Think of it as a relaxing alternative to trying to stay awake during Music History class.
I was also pleased that Apple Music Classical had imported my favourite classical tunes from Apple Music into the app's library.
If I had checked the library in the first place, I would have found my favourite Quasthoff song waiting for me yet there also lies the conundrum — that it didn't occur to me immediately.
The app, unlike Apple Music's app, does not allow downloads and if you add a track from Classical to your library it won't port over to Apple Music so you need to change apps to listen.
Weirdly shuffle is not supported by the app and right now you can only access the service on iPhone though apparently an Android version is in the works. As to Mac and iPad versions, they weren't available at launch but that could change.
Still, considering the fairly impressive selection, and the fact it gets regular music updates including service exclusives, and it is included along with your Apple Music subscription, there's no real reason not to recommend the service to classical music lovers.
Coincidentally as I was writing this review I was listening to a more contemporary pianist and composer on the app, Ludovico Einaud,i whose work is apparently much beloved on TIkTok. (I personally favour Andare from his 2007 release Divenire)
You can watch the Apple Music Classical promo vid here:
