In 2021, Apple Inc. acquired classical music streaming service Primephonic with a desire to integrate Primephonic's assets into Apple's streaming platform. After months of speculation, Apple Music Classical is finally available! Let's take a closer look at how it works and the features it offers.
What is Apple Music Classical?
As the name suggests , Apple Music Classical (hereinafter AMC) is an app dedicated exclusively to classical music. This means that AMC will work separately from the main Apple Music app to avoid confusion.
As Apple Inc. previously announced, Apple Inc.'s use of the Com app AMC will help you have access to the "world's largest classical music catalog", which contains more than five million titles, from relatively new releases to well-known classics of the genre.
The application was reportedly developed to support “the complex data structure of classical music,” with often longer and more detailed titles, a greater number of artists for each work, and even many versions of older classical pieces famous ones to consider. to exist. In other words, AMC gives the classic genre the freedom to be what it is without having to adhere to the "rules" of other genres.
In the application you can search for a specific work, a composer, a conductor or a catalog number, as well as specific eras of classical music, choirs, ensembles, orchestras. and explore soloists. Additionally, you can discover new songs through playlists (in fact, there must be over 700 expert-curated playlists) and expert recommendations (editor-curated selections), or listen to classical music pieces based on the specifications of the instrumental sections.
As already mentioned, the application is not only aimed at music experts and amateurs of the genre, who can obviously also use the search to find recordings. For example, the accompanying audio guide, The Story of Classical, should be perfect for classical music beginners who want to learn more about the related musical field. Additionally, many playlists include recordings of popular classical music pieces or contain songs unique to certain subgenres, instruments, and more.
What are the main features of Apple Music Classical?
In addition to the complete catalog and the "special instant search" supposedly designed specifically for classical music, there are other features (as well as limitations ) of the application.
An important feature is the very high quality of the audio offered (actually called "maximum audio quality"). AMC user. All music tracks can be listened to lossless and in high resolution up to 192 kHz/24 bit. Additionally, thousands of recordings will be available in Apple's immersive spatial audio with Dolby Atmos. This means that these titles can be listened to in a 360-degree audio format that creates a surround effect through a pair of speakers, including headphones.
Another feature or bonus if you prefer, are what we call the strong educational elements of the app. In addition to the aforementioned "complete and accurate classical metadata" showing the exact work and artist reproduced, users can access "exclusive artwork" showing, among other things, portraits of the composers/conductors/ artists and get information about them. in thousands of editorial notes. . This includes biographies of the composer, descriptions of his major works and more.
This way, users can learn more about the composer's life and history musical specific artist or composer. Just so you know, this data replaces the lyrics button traditionally available in the main Apple Music app.
As far as limitations go, the most important limitation is the lack of ability to download music to the AMC app for offline listening. However, as a workaround, users can add their favorite recordings, albums, or playlists to the Apple Music Classical library and then upload them to the Apple Music app.
This means you can access and listen to anything you add to your AMC library in the Apple Music app on any device; In fact, the music libraries of the two apps are synchronized. However, other recordings and works of the respective classical music artists/composers or composers' artist pages are only accessible via the AMC app. On the other hand, the AMC app does not allow access to music of genres other than classical music.
Also, the shuffle function is not available on AMC . App and it is also important to note that you can download the app on your iPhone only on all devices manufactured by Apple. As already mentioned, the application was developed and created exclusively for mobile devices. If you want to listen to your favorite classical music on other devices, such as iPad or Mac, you can do so via the main Apple Music app and your shared music library (as explained in the previous section).
Read More:How to record from Apple Music 2024
Where is the Apple Music Classical app available?
Speaking of app availability: who can actually download and use it? First of all, not all Android users can access the AMC app at the moment but, as Apple said, the Android version should be available soon. If you are an iPhone user, make sure your phone is or can be updated to the latest iOS version available. It must be at least iOS version 15.4, which means that in the worst case scenario you will need an iPhone 6s.
As regards geographical availability, the app is accessible wherever Apple Music is offered. This excludes Russia, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Türkiye. For some users, the AMC app is available for free with (almost) any active Apple Music subscription (e.g. individual, student, or family subscription).
The The only exception to this rule is the Apple Music Voice plan, designed to play music only through Siri. If you are a voice subscriber and would like access to AMC, simply upgrade your current subscription.
What does all this mean for classical music artists?
So what does the launch of Apple Music Classical really mean for classical music artists like you? First of all, you can certainly increase awareness of yourself and your work through special playlists, editorial selections and other specific sections of the catalog.
Streaming music is not became a reality. . He especially loved the genre of classical music and did not pay enough attention to it. Apple Music Classical could help change the situation by being the second streaming platform dedicated exclusively to classical music (the first is IDAGIO).
However, it is currently unclear how exactly Apple Classical Music will continue to be promoted to current classical artists, i.e. independent artists. So far, all information provided to support the app has focused solely on the user experience and not on the artists themselves. The huge catalog and associated data are known to come from the ancient Primephonic archive.
Furthermore, the selection of recordings listed there depends largely on the selection of publishers by agency. . This may mean we'll have to wait a while to see what new steps Apple Music takes in marketing classical music.
Read Also: How to get free Apple Music in 2024
Distributing classical music with iMusician
While little is known about how AMC will benefit classical music artists in particular, keep in mind that to get your music into the app, you must distribute it through the correct music distributor. Classic releases follow a very specific track format and therefore few companies distribute music of this genre. At iMusician we are proud to distribute the widest range of music genres, including classical music, which means we also offer releases for Apple Music Classical.
What and that? Plus, iMusician lets you submit your music to Apple Music curators and publishers (including AMC), increasing your chances of being playlisted and discovered by potential fans. Our team of experts have the right contacts on Apple Music and other music streaming platforms to try to get your release into a relevant playlist. While AMC publishers won't necessarily help promote the release, we will do our best to do so.