Apple Music Classical(learn.applemusic.apple)
learn.applemusic.apple
Apple Music Classical
https://learn.applemusic.apple/apple-music-classical
461 comments
I would love to see something like this for jazz, which has musicians constantly moving through groups and albums as musicians and composers and writers.
Like take "Take Five", one of my favorites. It was written by Paul Desmond for the Dave Brubeck Quartet, with solos by Desmond on alto sax and Joe Morello on drums. Those are all fun pieces of information that I wish I could click through to see more of.
Just like classical music, it's not impossible to represent this with a generic interface, but it would benefit by something more geared to how jazz fans like to browse.
Like take "Take Five", one of my favorites. It was written by Paul Desmond for the Dave Brubeck Quartet, with solos by Desmond on alto sax and Joe Morello on drums. Those are all fun pieces of information that I wish I could click through to see more of.
Just like classical music, it's not impossible to represent this with a generic interface, but it would benefit by something more geared to how jazz fans like to browse.
For those asking why they "didn't just" improve the existing music app. This is the rebranded version of a service called Primephonic which they acquired last year. This is obviously way less work than trying to jam it into the existing app, so I don't think it's an entirely unreasonable decision.
https://www.apple.com/hk/en/newsroom/2021/08/apple-acquires-...
https://www.apple.com/hk/en/newsroom/2021/08/apple-acquires-...
Maybe we'll finally get a music app where classical music isn't categorized by Album/Artist :)
Classical doesn't really fit that well into a schema, since you have composers, performers, and then under performers there's soloist, or multiple soloists, which orchestra, which conductor, and so on.
And it would also be nice to have things like "show most popular recordings of Beethoven's 5th".
Classical doesn't really fit that well into a schema, since you have composers, performers, and then under performers there's soloist, or multiple soloists, which orchestra, which conductor, and so on.
And it would also be nice to have things like "show most popular recordings of Beethoven's 5th".
This is great - it being a separate app solves some core problems!
It's a hard firewall between my "normal" music library and classical, which means risk free shuffle play. I never want Bach and Slayer in sequence.
They can optimize the UI, recommendations, etc. based on music that is all about reproduction, rather than being performed by the original artists.
Going against the grain and honing in on a total niche is so awesome and hopefully a sign of things to come.
I enjoy this split with movies too, the Criterion Apple TV app is such a nice break from the noisy HBO Max, etc. stuff.
And yes, I agree, Jazz would be an obvious next niche to target with a dedicated app!
It's a hard firewall between my "normal" music library and classical, which means risk free shuffle play. I never want Bach and Slayer in sequence.
They can optimize the UI, recommendations, etc. based on music that is all about reproduction, rather than being performed by the original artists.
Going against the grain and honing in on a total niche is so awesome and hopefully a sign of things to come.
I enjoy this split with movies too, the Criterion Apple TV app is such a nice break from the noisy HBO Max, etc. stuff.
And yes, I agree, Jazz would be an obvious next niche to target with a dedicated app!
> There’s no separate subscription for Apple Music Classical. It’s included at no extra cost with all Apple Music subscriptions except the Apple Music Voice Plan.
Bit of a missed opportunity here to provide a cheaper subscription just for Classical. Apple could have captured Spotify users who would be willing to pay a small premium for a nicer classical UX, but would be unwilling to take out an additional full-priced music subscription. Inevitably some Classical only users would end up migrating entirely to Apple Music to amalgamate their subscription costs.
Bit of a missed opportunity here to provide a cheaper subscription just for Classical. Apple could have captured Spotify users who would be willing to pay a small premium for a nicer classical UX, but would be unwilling to take out an additional full-priced music subscription. Inevitably some Classical only users would end up migrating entirely to Apple Music to amalgamate their subscription costs.
Actually, I think it's a good thing they've built a separate app for that. We used to think that one app that rules all of them is a good idea. Not always.
Classical music has a lot of nuances (some of which are listed on the announcement page) and from UI/UX perspective it would be quite difficult to mixed all these details in the standard Apple Music app.
I'm now wondering what Spotify thinks about this matter. Do they plan to highlight classical music like Apple did. I don't know.
Classical music has a lot of nuances (some of which are listed on the announcement page) and from UI/UX perspective it would be quite difficult to mixed all these details in the standard Apple Music app.
I'm now wondering what Spotify thinks about this matter. Do they plan to highlight classical music like Apple did. I don't know.
Please if someone from Apple is listening: Please pay some attention to Indian music as well. I mostly only listen to Tamil songs and when Apple came out with iTunes Match or something where they analyze your library and match it to what they have in cloud, they just incorrectly matched songs with the Telugu version and ones from other languages and totally messed up my collection. And, this day and age, why should all Indian music be clubbed under "Foreign" genre by default?
Am the only person who finds it completely ridiculous that not even APPLE can launch the iPad version of this app at the same time as their iOS one?
I launch it on my iPad (which is hooked to my external dac/amp setup via usb-c) and I see.. This: https://imgur.com/a/cAX0zZA
I launch it on my iPad (which is hooked to my external dac/amp setup via usb-c) and I see.. This: https://imgur.com/a/cAX0zZA
The domain applemusic.apple is outstanding. It’s giving Tim Apple energy.
> "For example, from the formal Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 to the popular byname of Moonlight Sonata, or in multiple languages, such as Mondschein Sonata in German."
"Mondschein Sonata"? WTF Apple? Not only is that factually wrong, but… that's not even German - neither as a whole, nor the "Sonata" nor the space (Deppenleerzeichen). Maybe Apple should ask someone else than Siri or a marketing intern to write texts with factual claims outside of their fields. The actual popular German sobriquet for that Sonata is "Mondscheinsonate". As for "Sonata", that's part of the (Italian) title of its first published edition: "Sonata quasi una Fantasia".
"Mondschein Sonata"? WTF Apple? Not only is that factually wrong, but… that's not even German - neither as a whole, nor the "Sonata" nor the space (Deppenleerzeichen). Maybe Apple should ask someone else than Siri or a marketing intern to write texts with factual claims outside of their fields. The actual popular German sobriquet for that Sonata is "Mondscheinsonate". As for "Sonata", that's part of the (Italian) title of its first published edition: "Sonata quasi una Fantasia".
Oh my, 192kHz/24bit. One would expect Apple would not need snake oil to sell their product.
To those not so familiar with audio DSP: 192kHz and 24bit make perfect sense if you intend to mangle the audio a LOT afterwards. At 192kHz, you can pitch shift your audio down by two octaves and still have frequency content in the entire CD spectrum. Very useful, and common, for movie effects. And 24bit, or better even 32bit, basically eliminates any floating point errors when you have a DSP chain with lots of multiplications.
But for playback, you need around 32-40kHz sample rate and 10 or 11bits. Even 16bit is already overkill.
To those not so familiar with audio DSP: 192kHz and 24bit make perfect sense if you intend to mangle the audio a LOT afterwards. At 192kHz, you can pitch shift your audio down by two octaves and still have frequency content in the entire CD spectrum. Very useful, and common, for movie effects. And 24bit, or better even 32bit, basically eliminates any floating point errors when you have a DSP chain with lots of multiplications.
But for playback, you need around 32-40kHz sample rate and 10 or 11bits. Even 16bit is already overkill.
This looks ok, but I can't be the only person suffering Content Fatigue.
Between access to infinite music, infinite movies and TV, infinite gaming, and infinite news - and that's just leisure - I'm not sure how much time I have left for a finite life.
Between access to infinite music, infinite movies and TV, infinite gaming, and infinite news - and that's just leisure - I'm not sure how much time I have left for a finite life.
This actually sounds pretty cool, I was actually thinking of this the other day: classical music is an entirely different beast of finding things to listen to, you can't just "pick a band and album in a genre".
For example: if I want to listen to Mozart, and I've never listen to any of his compositions before where do I even start to look to find a "good interpretation". You can't just search for Album/Artist.
Weird how Apple can read my mind.
For example: if I want to listen to Mozart, and I've never listen to any of his compositions before where do I even start to look to find a "good interpretation". You can't just search for Album/Artist.
Weird how Apple can read my mind.
This treatment would also be very welcome for Jazz - I want to hear My Favourite Things but I don't want Julie Andrews
If the app is only half as good as the Primephonic service that Apple acquired and shuttered and on which it is probably based, it will already be an asset for classical music lovers worldwide. Apps like Spotify are hugely inadequate for browsing classical music. Hell, in those you often even cannot read the entire title of a track because it is overstuffed with (meta) info.
Looks nice but I have to play with it more. It has certainly been "Appleinzed". Playlists feature single movements of pieces that make little musical sense outside of the context of the whole composition they were meant to be a part of. For new users looking to dop their toes in the Classical world the absolute first, featured piece you see is Mahler's 9th symphony. Certainly not something new listeners would likely enjoy as a starter piece. Search looks good and the browse part offers good choices of the various genres. It imported all my classical albums and only my classical albums from Apple music. Good start
I was skeptical of the idea when it was announced a few weeks ago but I like what I see. Music discovery on the classical side is different from popular genres. Often I’m trying to discover new/different recordings of works I’m already familiar with. Different players, conductors, etc. Here, it’s a success.
For example I’m playing the Beethoven Op. 97 at a festival this summer. I have my go-to recordings but I’m curious what’s out there. The search here yields complete works; rather than a movement here and a movement there, album here and and album there. This is priceless compared to the classically-oriented search elsewhere.
For example I’m playing the Beethoven Op. 97 at a festival this summer. I have my go-to recordings but I’m curious what’s out there. The search here yields complete works; rather than a movement here and a movement there, album here and and album there. This is priceless compared to the classically-oriented search elsewhere.
>Which devices is Apple Music Classical available on?
>Apple Music Classical was built exclusively for mobile and is available on iOS with Android coming soon.
I wish they made an app specifically for MacBook as well
>Apple Music Classical was built exclusively for mobile and is available on iOS with Android coming soon.
I wish they made an app specifically for MacBook as well
How is Apple Music playback on Amazon Echo devices? Does Apple have anything as nice as Spotify Connect?
My current setup is that I have an Echo Dot connected by the line out to my A/V receiver, with the microphone turned off. With Spotify Connect the Spotify on my computer or phone can tell the Spotify on the Dot to play a song, album, or playlist. The Spotify on the Dot then streams that music from Spotify. I can turn the computer or phone off and the music keeps playing. Spotify on my computer or phone will show what is playing on the Dot and let me control it.
This works really well. (In fact, it works way better than Amazon Music from my computer or phone works with the Dot. I just finished a 90 day free trial of Amazon Music and one of the reasons I did not subscribe was how poorly Amazon Music works with Echo devices. Spotify completely blows Amazon out of the water there).
What I really like with this is that once I start playback the computer or phone no longer needs to be involved.
I know that there is an Apple Music app for Echo that lets Apple Music be a source for Echo, so that I could say "Play Foo on Apple Music" and Alexa would use Apple Music do do that, but I don't want to choose my music by voice. I want to do the choosing on my Mac or phone/tablet.
My current setup is that I have an Echo Dot connected by the line out to my A/V receiver, with the microphone turned off. With Spotify Connect the Spotify on my computer or phone can tell the Spotify on the Dot to play a song, album, or playlist. The Spotify on the Dot then streams that music from Spotify. I can turn the computer or phone off and the music keeps playing. Spotify on my computer or phone will show what is playing on the Dot and let me control it.
This works really well. (In fact, it works way better than Amazon Music from my computer or phone works with the Dot. I just finished a 90 day free trial of Amazon Music and one of the reasons I did not subscribe was how poorly Amazon Music works with Echo devices. Spotify completely blows Amazon out of the water there).
What I really like with this is that once I start playback the computer or phone no longer needs to be involved.
I know that there is an Apple Music app for Echo that lets Apple Music be a source for Echo, so that I could say "Play Foo on Apple Music" and Alexa would use Apple Music do do that, but I don't want to choose my music by voice. I want to do the choosing on my Mac or phone/tablet.
This might be the thing that makes me jump ship from Spotify. Catalog there is not great and the track listings are all useless, you need to wait 30 second for the text to scroll before you get to the useful piece of information.
It’s definitely not perfect, but I’m enjoying it, as someone who has been unhappy with Spotify’s haphazard approach to classical music.
I was exploring the “Harpsichord“ category and Bach’s Toccata No. 6 in G Minor, and saw a performance by Glenn Gould: “Glen Gould on the harpsichord? Oh, how interesting! [listens] How...not a harpsichord.”
So there are still a few bugs to be worked out.
I was exploring the “Harpsichord“ category and Bach’s Toccata No. 6 in G Minor, and saw a performance by Glenn Gould: “Glen Gould on the harpsichord? Oh, how interesting! [listens] How...not a harpsichord.”
So there are still a few bugs to be worked out.
It's good that they finally released something on the back of the Primephonic acquisition: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/08/apple-acquires-classi...
Brilliant. I kept my classical music in a separate playlist because it's so unwieldy. This is the perfect solution for me.
By the way, I love the serifed font - hope those make a comeback.
By the way, I love the serifed font - hope those make a comeback.
192kHz/24 bit, what a wonderful piece of snakeoil... What do they actually record with this frequency, bats talking to each other about classical music?
Err… downloaded on my iPad.
It launches as a scaled iPhone app. You must be f’ing kidding me?
It launches as a scaled iPhone app. You must be f’ing kidding me?
Is the app bug free and good? I thought to switch from Spotify to Apple music recently and started a trial with Apple music. The music selection is good and the sound quality is good but the client Apple music client for Mac is unbelievably buggy for first-party software. I had to get onto Apple support just to get my account going as it would just sit there constantly syncing. It feels sluggish doing things like adding to playlists, and there are numerous little quality of life bugs like the search box not focussing properly sometimes.
I'm on the fence about the idea of switching now. I guess part of it was that the apps would be significantly better than Spotify.
I'm on the fence about the idea of switching now. I guess part of it was that the apps would be significantly better than Spotify.
Felt excited to see Fazıl Say (from Turkey), just to see that the app is not available in Turkey facepalm.
Now make one for Indian classical music. Indian classical is as rich as European, with it's ragas and talas and so many instruments (tabla, sitar, sarangi... )
Not sure if this fixes a problem that has plagued Apple music products since probably day one:
You can't play "The Wall" or "Dark Side of the Moon" or the "Brandenburg Concertos" as a unified piece of work and listen to each in order from start to finish. Apple thinks in terms of songs, not albums.
Albums exist in classical and popular music. Not sure why Apple thinks this way. In a sense, it represents total lack of respect for the artist and their work.
It's like a book reading app not having a way to read a book from start to finish. Imagine if it showed you a massive list of chapters from different books and you had to manually find and order chapters to make-up a unified book.
Windows Media understands albums. My entire CD collection is digitized under WM. I can create playlists that consist of of them and play them that way. To continue with the example, I can add Pink Floyd's albums into a playlist and play them one-by-one, in the order they were recorded.
You cannot play an album as it was recorded.
You can't play "The Wall" or "Dark Side of the Moon" or the "Brandenburg Concertos" as a unified piece of work and listen to each in order from start to finish. Apple thinks in terms of songs, not albums.
Albums exist in classical and popular music. Not sure why Apple thinks this way. In a sense, it represents total lack of respect for the artist and their work.
It's like a book reading app not having a way to read a book from start to finish. Imagine if it showed you a massive list of chapters from different books and you had to manually find and order chapters to make-up a unified book.
Windows Media understands albums. My entire CD collection is digitized under WM. I can create playlists that consist of of them and play them that way. To continue with the example, I can add Pink Floyd's albums into a playlist and play them one-by-one, in the order they were recorded.
The issue is that while it's nice to have a UX tailored for classical, this won't likely help the classical industry to thrive again.
To simplify a bit, the classical music industry is composed of:
- the majors labels (Universal Music, Sony, Warner and EMI)
- A dozen large independent labels (Naxos being the largest)
- hundreds of small labels
The majors mostly care about promoting a few star performers and milking their huge existing catalog. They have no problem with putting everything on subscription services for pennies. This what you find on all subscription services.
The larger independent labels also have significant catalog and some will also put part of it on subscription services but mostly won't.
However, it is totally financially impossible for the smaller labels which are actually recording most of the interesting new records to survive on the pennies they would get from subscription services. Most of them have rejected that model and caters to the increasingly niche market of audiophile still ready to buy new high quality music.
As a classical music fan, I'm happy to see that there will finally be an offering offering a good experience and massively increasing discoverability (which is terrible in mainstream services).
But unfortunately, this wont change the fact that the classical recording industry is dying and that the sector is only surviving thanks to public and private subsidies.