Apple buys Primephonic, plans classical Apple Music app
Apple has acquired classical music streaming company Primephonic, and plans to both improve the current Apple Music service, plus launch a dedicated classical offering.
Apple Music
Apple has previously made minor concessions to classical music in iTunes, and then AppleInsider got classical musicians to evaluate AirPods Max. Now the company is making its biggest stride to bringing classical to Apple Music with the acquisition of Primephonic.
"We love and have a deep respect for classical music, and Primephonic has become a fan favorite for classical enthusiasts," Apple's vice president of Apple Music and Beats, Oliver Schusser, said in a statement.
"Together, we're bringing great new classical features to Apple Music," he continued, "and in the near future, we'll deliver a dedicated classical experience that will truly be the best in the world."
"Bringing the best of Primephonic to Apple Music subscribers is a tremendous development for the classical music industry," said Thomas Steffens, Primephonic's co-founder and CEO. "Artists love the Primephonic service and what we've done in classical, and now we have the ability to join with Apple to deliver the absolute best experience to millions of listeners."
"We get to bring classical music to the mainstream and connect a new generation of musicians with the next generation of audience," he said.
Primephonic is no longer accepting new subscribers, and will go offline from September 7. Current Primephonic subscribers will get six months of Apple Music for free.
Initially, Apple Music subscribers are to benefit from new exclusive content from Primephonic, as well as Primephonic playlists. Apple plans to improve browsing and searching for classical music over the next months.
Then in 2022, Apple intends to launch a dedicated Apple Music classical app. It will be based on Primephonic's current system, but all more as-yet unspecified features.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple Music
Apple has previously made minor concessions to classical music in iTunes, and then AppleInsider got classical musicians to evaluate AirPods Max. Now the company is making its biggest stride to bringing classical to Apple Music with the acquisition of Primephonic.
"We love and have a deep respect for classical music, and Primephonic has become a fan favorite for classical enthusiasts," Apple's vice president of Apple Music and Beats, Oliver Schusser, said in a statement.
"Together, we're bringing great new classical features to Apple Music," he continued, "and in the near future, we'll deliver a dedicated classical experience that will truly be the best in the world."
"Bringing the best of Primephonic to Apple Music subscribers is a tremendous development for the classical music industry," said Thomas Steffens, Primephonic's co-founder and CEO. "Artists love the Primephonic service and what we've done in classical, and now we have the ability to join with Apple to deliver the absolute best experience to millions of listeners."
"We get to bring classical music to the mainstream and connect a new generation of musicians with the next generation of audience," he said.
Primephonic is no longer accepting new subscribers, and will go offline from September 7. Current Primephonic subscribers will get six months of Apple Music for free.
Initially, Apple Music subscribers are to benefit from new exclusive content from Primephonic, as well as Primephonic playlists. Apple plans to improve browsing and searching for classical music over the next months.
Then in 2022, Apple intends to launch a dedicated Apple Music classical app. It will be based on Primephonic's current system, but all more as-yet unspecified features.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Additionally, a lot of classical music is long-form and multi-movement. On an album, a single work is frequently represented by multiple tracks. Listeners asking Siri to cue up some Beethoven are quickly disappointed when playlists grab a track from the middle of a symphony, the next from a the end of a piano sonata and the next from the beginning of a string quartet. This would be like asking for a playlist of your favorite classic rock and getting the guitar solo from "Hot for Teacher," followed by the bridge from "We Can Work it Out," and then just the first half of "Layla," truncated before the piano part starts. Bleh. Also bleh is the perpetual featuring of "Best of Bach" and "Soothing piano music" compilation albums, that might get a lot of play from dabblers who just want something randomly "classical," but are profoundly annoying to anyone who actually likes classical music. There ought to be a place to find that stuff, but the analogue would be going to the record bins looking for something new or an interesting deep dive your favorite rock artist, only to have to dig through a bunch of K-Tel and Time-Life greatest hits collections and generic band re-recordings of your favorite rock artist's stuff. Bleh.
Apple's move to lossless streaming and spatial audio is already a great thing for classical music, and now, paying better attention to accommodate search and long-form performances, this will make Apple Music classical an actual destination for classical music enthusiasts.
Chopin polonaise performed by Artur Rubinstein? It's already available on Apple Music, Primephonic, Amazon, Google, Pandora, whatever.
No one here knows how Primephonic's contracts are written but most likely Apple will need to renegotiate new contracts as each one expires just like they need to renegotiate their Apple Music contracts.
The main reasons for the acquisition are likely some sort of better music discovery algorithm and a superior classification database (and search engine). Note that Apple intends on having a dedicated classical music app.
If I search for "Goldberg Variations" on most streaming services, the search results are a big mess. How should results be ranked?
And what about a given artist? Rubinstein recorded many pieces several times. So has Argerich, Schiff, Karajan, Levine, Yo-Yo Ma, etc. How well are live recordings identified compared to studio recordings?
Also, Apple's acquisition of Beats music doesn't seem to have put Spotify out of business.
Audio media
Video media
Text/Image media
That’s three apps. Even A/V could be combined, as in “playback media” vs “static display media”
I really don’t need separate apps for pop, jazz, audio books, classic, podcasts, tv series, movies, video podcasts, anime, books, document viewing, etc.
It’s just annoying.
And then: where do I find audio podcasts of classic music concerts? 🙄