Just saw an announcement for Apple Music Classical.
Apple bought Primephonic a while back so I’m assuming that is the collection behind the new service.
It claims to have lossless up to 24/192 and is part of Apple Music supscription and included with Apple One.
I just saw a brief announcement so the full details might be different than what I show here, but this would be good for classical music fans that miss the Primephonic service.
I had preinstalled it even though I think I won’t subscribe to it. Out of curiosity, can you say if Primephonic had anything extra other than being a dedicated interface that makes it stand out? (like unique albums that I wouldn’t get in other stream services).
The main feature of classical focused services is the enhanced searching they provide.
Classical fans require more than artist/title seraches. For example, instead of “organ music” they need a specific composer, orchestra, conductor, recording venue, name of the choir and guest organ soloist.
The same piece performed by a different orchestras and conductors can sound like a different piece so detailed searches are needed.
Add in that pieces may be known by different names in different languages and you can see what classical listeners are up against.
I don’t know if Apple retained Primephonic’s search abilities but if not I suspect it won’t have much of an audience.
I get why it is an interesting interface now, ty. I was just hoping it also had improved library and some more editorial content, like composer and piece info.
Yes they claim the improved search (of works etc) and lots of content like descriptions and background to works, artist and composer biographies etc. There was mention of exclusive performances as well which should make it distinctive. The spatial audio and how well they implement the search and content will dictate if they are a challenge to existing classical music services like Idagio and the new Presto one. Given it has taken over 18 months to bring to market I’m optimistic. The fact it is included in Apple Music with no additional cost also means it’s very good value!
So I have a free trial of Apple Music that will still be running when the Classical app is released. Here’s my question: How can I play lossless and hi-res files from Apple Music through a Windows PC (which has a DAC that can handle the 24/192 files that Apple says they have.?
I haven’t tried any of these but the options appear to be
I don’t know if any of these support lossless or which will set the dac to the proper format for each track.
You may wish to confirm this but I think the initial release is on IOS, So iPhone/ipad only.
I could be very much incorrect here.
I am going to risk bumping this thread to return to the discussion of this app.
I have to say, I was skeptical at first, but by this time I am using the Classical app pretty much whenever I am listening to classical music, on par with the regular Music app.
It is really nice, and I appreciate the library and navigation. One thing that I dont understand is why dont they let you download albums from the Classical app? You always have to first add the album to your library from the Classical app and then download it from the Music app.