Ever since Apple acquired Primephonic in 2021, a new classical music experience for iOS seemed inevitable – but it wasn’t clear exactly what form that would take.
Now we know. Apple Music Classical is a new streaming service for iPhones, included with an Apple Music subscription at no extra cost but requiring a separate app download to access.
The Classical app is due for launch on March 28, but can already be found in the App Store. Users can effectively ‘pre-order’ the app to ensure it automatically downloads to their device as soon as it becomes available. If you’re reading this after March 28, you can download it immediately.
This is a move fans of classical music have been waiting a long time for, and should really improve the browsing and listening experience. Classical music is notoriously difficult to organize effectively, but Apple has seemingly learned lessons from its acquisition of Primephonic and put effort into specialized search functions and human-curated playlists.
The new app is built on the same MusicKit framework as the existing Music app, but with a more subdued color and font palette. It features the world’s largest catalog of classical music with over 5 million tracks, and emphasizes high-quality lossless playback. A few thousand tracks are even comparable with spatial audio and Dolby Atmos.