Apple Music Classical: 15 Things You Need to Know About the New App
Apple today unveiled Apple Music Classical on the App Store. Here are 15 things you need to know about the new app:
- Apple Music Classical is based on Primephonic, a classical music streaming service that Apple acquired in 2021. The new app leverages Primephonic's playlists and audio content, search capabilities, metadata, and more.
- Apple Music Classical works in tandem with the existing Apple Music app, providing dedicated features to engage with classical music on the Apple Music platform more directly, but with many of the same features like support for Spatial Audio.
- As its name suggests, the app singularly contains classical music, offering over five million tracks, hundreds of curated playlists, and thousands of exclusive albums.
- Apple says that it has been working with classical music artists and institutions to offer exclusive content and recordings in Apple Music Classical, including Hi-Res Lossless and Spatial Audio tracks.
- The app's design is based on Apple Music, but with a simplified UI that heavily uses Apple's New York font instead of SF Pro.
- There is no Radio tab in the Apple Music Classical app, and it is not yet clear if it will support classical Radio Stations from Apple Music.
- The app features a more capable search experience, allowing users to search by composer, work, conductor, catalog number, and more.
- The Now Playing screen has an all-white or all-black background, unlike Apple Music, which generates a background from the currently playing track's album artwork.
- The Now Playing screen features an info button instead of lyrics, providing detailed written descriptions of songs.
- The app features rich composer bios, editorial notes, and detailed information about key works.
- Apple has commissioned unique artwork of famous artists for Apple Music Classical using color palettes and artistic references from the relevant classical period. The first portraits include Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Johann Sebastian Bach, with more to come in the future.
- There is no version of Apple Music Classical for iPadOS, making it an iPhone-only app.
- An Android version of Apple Music Classical is in the works and set to arrive "soon," according to Apple.
- Apple has launched a new Twitter account for Apple Music Classical, @appleclassical, to track news and updates about the app.
- Apple Music Classical is included for free as part of an existing Apple Music or Apple One subscription, but it is not included in the $4.99-per-month Apple Music Voice plan.
Apple Music Classical is now available for pre-order on the App Store and due to be released on March 28, 2023.
Popular Stories
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code.
In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak.
As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station.
According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas.
We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features.
Transfer to Android
Apple is making it simpler...
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...
