I’m a classical musician and listener as well as iOS app developer who loves Apple so this app seemed too good to be true for me, and unfortunately it isn’t true. It’s close, and I like being able to look through recordings of a specific work and save works as a whole, and mostly I just like the huge library and high quality audio. But there are many issues: 1. If you go to the work page for Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major, the list of tracks don’t have the violinist in the name ANYWHERE. sometimes it even has a cellist because there is also a cello concerto on the album. Violinist needs to be first, then conductor/orchestra. 2. You can’t share individual tracks, only full recordings. Makes it hard to share with friends. 3. (This is a big one for me) In the Library section, you lose the big album tiles and the “recently added” section that Apple Music has. I really want that back, it helps me look through for what I want to listen to. You also can’t edit the list of sections, while you can on Apple Music. Overall the first point disappointed me because that should be the whole benefit of a specifically classical music app, and the third point disappointed me because it’s not as good as Apple Music. I also really want a Mac app. I hope that this app improves, and I’m giving it 4 stars rather than lower because I do think it has potential and I want to see it grow into itself.
Good in concept, except, there are some concerns, in an ever expanding online social aspect: 1) the lack of forum, post, or chat capability, and 2) not having some linkage to places such as The Met or other venues to provide updates of Classical Concerts that will be soon / in the coming months. I gauge Classical Music (really extends to all forms) as something social going, in the end. Separating into this set and “stand alone” app could in fact become a trend, with more offshoots (yes, this is more than theory, given automatons) of separate *geared mainly for such music lovers / concert goers* apps will develop. Congrats for creating such an app, even though is preliminary. Classical Music can really only really be enjoyed, continued, and have dialogue when having that in person concert going occurring, and then, since the original Dot Com times with MySpace and Facebook did happen and so on, the sense of online community for electronic communication bridging. And while I am doing what best possible to avoid some dubious concerns on why and how this app came to be, I think that this being offered does allow for some enhancements in the long run for ALL that are musically talented, hope for their sounds &or voices to be heard, whether all together and varied &Or each on their own, and on, and on, and on.
This is SO much better for classical music fans than the regular Apple Music app. Thank you very much for doing this. Love that there are curated playlists, recommended new albums with some editorial info about them (would love even more of that). Playlists and “track by track” feature are a pleasure (adds a lot to hear Yo Yo Ma explain something about what he’s playing and also share his playlist with you). Over time I hope you add much more of that. A couple suggestions: an iPad version would be great; also it can be a bit overwhelming when looking for a particular work to scroll through all the performance options. In addition to sorting by release date or popularity, how about an option to put artists that I’ve already starred as favorites first since those are who I am most likely to pick. Also, would love to shuffle my classical library or playlist by work rather than track or album (i.e., all movements of a piece in order without listening to the whole album, then move to the next). Overall, a great addition I have hope for for a long time. Thank you.
First, there is no excuse for the fact that the normal Music app can not do the right thing when listening to classical music. Note that the same could be said of jazz or other musical styles. Are we going to need an app for each genre? Then, to top it off, it is a phone app that does not adapt to the iPad well at all. Wasting space and just generally a bad experience. Why do I talk about the iPad? Well, when reading a book, I like to listen to music. I don’t do this on my iPhone but rather my iPad. It is far better for this task. So, not only do I need a second Apple Music app but it is not even well done with respect to the iPad. Oh, and it glitched a few times while playing my word game - a game that has no sound and I have always played music while playing the game. (Then again, Apple Music sometimes glitches while reading a book… have not tried that with Apple Classical yet) I was hoping for something far better but it barely is worth the frustration to address some serious weaknesses in the Apple Music app. It really should have been just adding those features to Apple Music. At least it would have been iPad optimized that way. Very disappointed in Apple - especially since they normally deliver a much better user experience.
I’ve been listening to soundtracks by Nicholas Britell on the regular music app. I would classify most (if not all) of his work as contemporary classical. Yet when I switched to the Apple Music Classical app, I noticed a concerning similarity to which of Nicholas Britell’s very classical-sounding soundtracks did not appear on the classical app. They were the soundtracks for works with predominantly Black (African-American) casts, and dealing with Black themes Namely “Moonlight”, “If Beale Street Could Talk”, and “The Underground Railroad” . I want to assume that poorly programmed algorithms edited out these albums. Regardless of how this came to be, this should be looked into because obviously some human biases were programmed into the selection process. I would posit that Britell’s soundtracks for “Succession” are far less “classical” than the soundtracks that I mentioned above; however, they appear on the Classical app. While all of his soundtracks do not appear on the Classical App, it is very suspicious all three of his work for films and series focused on Black/African American experiences have been omitted. With the exception of “The Free State of Jones” which deals with the topic of slavery in America, however, Matthew McConaughey, a White man, is the only face on the album art.
After a rough couple of weeks, I’ve just been resting and listening to classical music today on a stereo pair of HomePod minis. The sound quality is amazing. It’s so easy to find the music I want to hear. I listened to my dad’s favorite piece The Moldau by Smetana. Then I found a whole group of melancholy string pieces that met me right where I was emotionally. Beautiful music can be so healing! I love the curated lists. I recently discovered the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, and I love listening to everything on his playlist in addition to his own recordings. There’s something touching to me that Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring was first on his list as it is one of my favorites. As a teenager, I remember going to Borders Bookstore and picking out tapes and cds of classical music. Some of the same recordings I loved then are in the library. I almost can’t wrap my head around how amazing it is to have a curated collection of the world’s best classical music recordings so easy to access from my phone. Feeling grateful for the ease of bringing beautiful classical music into my life!
Most specific compositions are mislabeled. Terrible filter options in the music library. No shuffle play on tracks in your library. Glitchy to the point where it will play the wrong track when you click on it. Use over time causes your music to be unplayable until you restart the app. Can’t choose specific songs to download. The search is not super user-friendly as it is hard to find certain compositions by certain composers with certain performers. All in all, the app is in its newest state and I’m sure many of these issues will be fixed soon. One positive, however, is the pure amount of music that is offered. I have yet to try any curated playlists or use any of the advanced features but the app looks beautiful and seems high quality. That being said, I give it two stars cause I know it could be and will be better in the future. Update: it’s been a while since this app was made and it’s an absolute joke. There’s more classical albums on “Apple Music” than in this app and EVERYTHING is mislabeled it’s insane. Please don’t waste your time and just use Apple Music instead to generate your classical music catalog
I love that classical music is breaking out into its own app. The filtering functions are very cool and I love how specific you can get (ensemble, soloist, etc.) I was extremely impressed with a feature in the opera essentials. When you click on the opera, the app provided a synopsis which is extremely helpful. It also lists other singers who have sung the aria as well as similar arias. I did not like, however, that the description of what opera is stated that it is “musical theater on steroids”. The descriptions of what each instrument and voice type are also leave something to be desired. Overall a fantastic concept, I feel classical music needs more depth and attention than other genres of music and this is a great first step in that direction. They also feature a history playlist that seems very interesting! Some features I would love to see: 1. sheet music (for pieces that are public domain) so the listener can follow along with the piece. 2. Translations for the art songs and opera arias!
Need iPadOS and MacOS versions and crossover features
It says a lot about how good this app is that my criticisms of it are basically just wanting more and easier access to it. For example, I love this app on my iPhone, but I also listen to music on my other Apple devices, and it’s a bit disappointing that those systems don’t have this app. It would also be great if there were more fluidity between this app and the regular music app. For example, if I hit play on my AirPods, after a period of inactivity, it will play the last thing I was listening to on the regular music app instead of the last thing I was listening to on classical. I would also love it if Apple expanded on the “Story of Classical” pieces to build out its own broader classical podcast. I really love the way Guy Jones tells the interesting stories of classical and how it got from one place to another. It has vastly increased my understanding of and appreciation for this music. In a lot of ways, classical lost out on the last few generations of music because only modern recording and consumer headphone technology can really capture what is so amazing about it. All the nuance and dynamics of classical only work when you can cancel out the noise and hear every little frequency. I’m so glad to be able to hear this music as it was intended just about anywhere, so please finish the job, Apple, and let’s make this the music of the people again.
There are many features here for those of us with a love of classical music. Others have commented on how one can explore by instrument, genre, and period of music. But… Why can’t I stack recordings and lists for playback and then randomize them. I nightly select quiet, gentle music, randomize, and then sleep with my headphones on masking background sounds (helped by noise canceling headphones). I’ll select, let’s say, guitar adagio albums (all the music isn’t actually adagio but still slow) and set up 6 hours or more randomized (these are single movements) and then the whole set repeats. This is NOT available on this new classical app. Oh well. Update (4-7-23): I love their groupings by composer, genre, period of music, etc. It’s amazing to see 435 recordings of “The Rite of Spring”. I love it! However, surely Anton Webern cannot remotely be categorized as a Romantic era composer!! Apple, please have someone with more knowledge go over your lists again. And you might want to consider having a Post-Romantic classification for the likes of Mahler and Bruckner.
Accidentally deleting a playlist and not being able to restore it was my intro to this app
Apple Music Classical pulls any works of music and the playlists you have from your main Apple Music account. Great! I thought. How convenient! Except one didn’t seem to fit in what I wanted to curate as my classical music collection. So I deleted it. Bad move. When I went back to the main Apple Music app where this list was generated by me, it no longer was there. Because deleting it in the Classical music app deleted it in Apple Music. Even though in the Classical Music app there was only one piece of music that migrated. No matter, my entire list- the one I listen to the most- DOZENS and dozens of songs were gone. Should I remember it? I’m sure some will come back to me and I can slowly rebuilt. But not really. If you google this problem, deleted playlists, you will find other frustrated people. It’s the stupidest, most unnecessary and probably easily fixable problem that apple just doesn’t care to address. That is the mark of terrible customer service. I really feel like canceling my subscription. I am that upset about this.
Good UI/UX design should liberate a user to experience new things they couldn’t otherwise with more ease. So often this new interface achieves this, and that is vital because there is little to this app that differentiates it from the regular music app besides a few comments, curated playlists, and UI/UX. UI/UX is unusually relevant for this app. There are so many ways it enables new experiences, but there are two seemingly deliberate design choices that contradict this: -The ability to add a song to a queue (“play next”) manually -The ability to shuffle I think bluntness is appropriate here. These are in my opinion cowardly design choices. They can only derive from a fear that the interface won’t adequately enable the desired experiences. I disagree, and to any extent that that’s arguably true, it can be solved through small design changes that further encourage people to use the app in the more helpful ways that have been curated. You did great with this app. If you don’t want shuffle, I understand that’s more debatable in context of what this app is for, but don’t let fear hold you back from implementing “play next” in this app. It’s a bold design you should be confident enough in for “play next” to not undermine the UI/UX. Don’t get in your own way from a place of fear. Be bold in showing more people the beauty of classical music through this artful UI/UX design.
The idea of a dedicated classical music streaming app is intriguing. Engaging with classical is a very different process than engaging with pop music, so some optimized functionality could go a long way. And by and large, this app is pretty successful. Being able to search for composers, players, and pieces makes finding recordings a lot easier. The app syncing with my regular music app helps a lot too. But there’s some problems. I won’t talk about the shuffle issue as everyone else already has. Instead I’ll talk about the jankiness of the sync function. For whatever reason, not all of my classical recordings from the main music app transfer over. When I try to add the recordings to the classical app, they don’t show up in my classical library. Similarly, certain recording I add to my main library don’t sync with my classical library but others do. I find this very frustrating, as it makes it more convenient to just use the main app to listen to classical.
Classically Impressed: A Symphony of Praise for Apple Music's Classical App
I recently subscribed to the Apple Music classical app and I have been thoroughly impressed with my experience so far. The app offers a vast library of classical music, including works from legendary composers like Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach, as well as contemporary artists. The user interface is clean and easy to navigate, making it simple to find the music I want to listen to. One of the standout features of the app is the curated playlists. Whether you're in the mood for a specific composer or want to discover new classical music, the playlists are expertly crafted and always provide a wonderful listening experience. The app also allows you to save your favorite pieces and playlists, making it easy to access your favorite music at any time. The sound quality is excellent, with crisp and clear audio that really brings the music to life. I also appreciate the background information and insights provided for each piece, giving me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the music. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the Apple Music classical app and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves classical music. Whether you're a seasoned fan or just starting to explore this genre, the app offers a fantastic way to discover and enjoy the beauty of classical music.
This is a fantastic way to discover and learn about classical music. The way things are organized seems to make sense and slices the data in a way that works really well for the unique needs of the sprawling classical music catalog. Other music apps are geared towards a single recording of a piece, whereas in classical music, the piece has often been recorded hundreds of times by different musicians. Being able to browse by work is very valuable indeed. One relatively minor annoyance: the “now playing” widget at the bottom of the app seems to lose what is currently playing quite often after the app is put in the background or my device locked. I haven’t figured out steps to reproduce it yet, but it’s inconvenient when you’ve browsed away from what’s playing and then that loses track of it as well. Overall, this is the best way I’ve found to consume classical music.
I only use Apple Music to listen to classical pieces, and it is nice to see a new app that is specifically designed for it. With the original app, it is often hard to navigate for the pieces I want to listen to. And also very distracting when I suddenly hear lyrics coming out of the speakers.(Lyrics limits my imagination while classical is complexed and are often played with emotions.) With this new app, I am able to focus on my favorite composers and conductors. Despite the ease it brought to me, I am disappointed when I found out that this app does not have an iPad version.(I usually listen from an iPad due to its loud speakers and can be stabilized on a piano. This way I can use the sound played as a reference. The app, though, can only be used vertically, which the iPad won’t stand.) It will be nice if a horizontal version for iPad is built, Apple.
I’m almost reluctant to say that Apple hit this out of the park for me. Limitless ways to search, great little bios on Many composers, soloists, and even instruments. The engine seems to work well and fast. Finally and most importantly (to me) is that the audio quality is great. Even over Bluetooth, the sound is more than satisfactory but when you really want to relax and pull out every detail, plug in your favorite headphones and take it all in. Also, there are narrated historical playlists compiled. These are an engaging lesson on the historical details of specific genres of classical. I’m currently checking out the baroque lesson. Fantastic explanations that present examples in between. If your in to classical, instrumental, or music history this is a great addition. The creators will probably never see this but Thank You!ll Well done and I’m looking forward to what else you come up with.
Keeping classical music and modern music is essential for the classical music enthusiasts. Traditional Apple Music algorithms don’t work in the context of classical, I don’t want to listen to classical and than rap. Classical is music, but it has a different motive when listening to it, it’s classical music, not a genre, it’s a whole separate thing. That’s what some of these low reviewers don’t understand. I don’t want classical to play in Apple Music, I want a separate app. This is what I want, when I’m in the mood for Classical I don’t want alternative to play next, I’m in the mood for classical. I want a separate algorithm for my classical, I don’t want my classical side to even know my traditional side. That’s what this app is for, people who don’t get the point will rate it low. Admittedly it’s not for everyone, that’s why it exists.
If you're a fan of classical music, the Classical app is a must-have. This beautifully designed app offers a vast library of classical music, from beloved masterpieces to lesser-known gems. With easy-to-use navigation and search functions, you can quickly find and listen to your favorite works by composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and more. One of the standout features of the Classical app is its high-quality audio, which allows you to fully appreciate the nuances and subtleties of each composition. You can also create custom playlists to suit your mood or occasion, making it easy to enjoy classical music wherever you go. Overall, I highly recommend the Classical app to anyone who loves classical music. It's a well-designed, easy-to-use app that provides endless hours of listening pleasure.
Apple Music Classical is great in principle, but it’s lacking basic functionality that you’d find in the regular Apple Music: you can’t download, you can’t shuffle, you can’t change what’s in the up next cue, etc. There’re also some glitches, which are to be expected with a new app; I’ve found that, on occasion, if you try to play a song in the middle of a playlist, it’ll play the first song of the playlist and never advance to the next song; it also will stop playing sometimes when the screen is locked. There are a few other problems I’ve come across that I can’t recall right now. I think it’s a good concept that makes a valiant attempt to address the unique problems of categorizing classical music that doesn’t exist for popular music, but it needs some improvement.
After using it for about two weeks, I can say that Apple Music Classical is absolutely essential for perusing classical music on a streaming platform. No other mainstream music streaming service does it this well. That being said, the app still feels empty. A few features that I would consider essential to any app like this are missing: no macOS support, no ability to directly download music from within the app (you have to add it to your library then switch back to regular Apple Music to download), no CarPlay support, and no real-time lyrics for operas. That last one is a particular pain point for me— the fact that I always need to have a separate app open to follow the lyrics (and lyrical translations) is really annoying, and I feel it should be baked in to Apple Music Classical. I really hope that these features will be added in the near future. But until then, my review will top out at 3 stars.
I like the idea of Apple’s classical music service more than I like the implementation. I prefer to listen to classical music using the streaming features on my amplifier and controlled by Roon rather than using my phone and streaming via Bluetooth, as the sound quality is significantly better and I don’t need to worry about running the battery down on my phone or iPad, as often happens when they are used for streaming music over Bluetooth. If Apple’s classical music library could be accessed through Roon, I would be more interested in using their classical music service. As it is, when I want to listen to classical, it looks like I’ll have to continue to rely on my collection of SACDs and on streaming Qobuz’s excellent classical library through Roon. With regards to the app itself, as other reviewers have noted, the app would benefit from improvements to the search function, the addition of a shuffle function, and a dedicated iPad version of the app.
Unfortunate Requirement of Apple Music Subscription
I understand Apple wants to get into the subscription based platform that everyone has gone to now, but this app is only that. Even for pieces that I have already purchased on the iTunes store, there is literally no point to this app without an Apple Music subscription. There is no option to purchase an individual song or album (by the way, same is true for the Music app, which should be an option), and not even an option to hear a sample of the song without the stupid subscription. You would think I could play a piece that is ALREADY DOWNLOADED and purchased in the music app, just on the Apple Music Classical app instead. I think if I had known this would be the end result of an app like this, I would rather Apple just incorporated it into the pre-existing Music app. Great idea of an app, but extremely poor execution in terms of connecting with other Apple based apps. Very disappointing.
The navigation and search is much better than normal music. Very nice sync, I was afraid I wild have to recreate all my playlists again, but it synced all of them from apple music. The reason I leave a four star rating is simply because it didn’t have enough tracks. I will search of a specific song, and it will lead me to the with the song is found in, but there are no recordings of the song I am looking for. It is nice, however, that it will show me that there are no recordings of the song I’m looking for. On Apple Music, I would search for a song, but couldn’t find it. On Apple Music classical, it would come up with the song I am looking for, but then show me that there are no recordings of it. If there was more recordings to less popular classical songs, I would rate the app 5 stars.
I am reviewing the app itself, not the extensive collection of music. First, the app is iPhone-only. Seriously, they did not have the people-power to design it work as an iPad app? Are we in 2010? Second, the app quit working and would not play music. I quit it many times and restarted it, but I resorted to playing music from the Music app. At some point during the night it decided to work again. Third, if you are playing a playlist and exit the song view, you’ll see a list of songs and somewhere there is your song, with controls at the bottom. It is not obvious which piece you are playing. Finally, it seems like the Music app is just better all around. Maybe Apple decided they needed to design a new app from scratch rather than porting the Music app. I like having all the music in one spot, but the app should have been a better product. Please improve it and get an iPad version.
Almost perfect. So great to have a user experience custom tailored to classical music. I’m guessing there’s no shuffle because the team found it difficult to reconcile works vs tracks. My suggestion to the design team: don’t overthink it, shuffling tracks is fine. There’s no need to shuffle at 30+ minute intervals amongst full works. Here’s the use case: I love piano concertos. I found a whole bunch I’ve never heard before. If I listen to them in the same order in a playlist, they’ll “burn in” to my memory faster and I get bored with them sooner. Shuffling the tracks gives me a fresh experience every time I listen. It would be great to see this feature added. It might actually be a deal-breaker that causes me to stick with my existing music service.
I’ve never experienced such a buggy app from Apple. I don’t use Apple Music but wanted to give this app a try. Classical will not work unless you have Apple Music installed on your device, which implies that this app is only a skin / wrapper for Apple Music. The app will often just not pay a song. Tapping on the song, or pressing “play” on the album won’t do it. Quitting / reopening the app multiple times won’t fix it either. You’ll check if it’s a network issue by loading a video online and realize that it’s just the app not playing any songs. Just today music stopped in the middle of a song and a podcast started playing, I checked and I didn’t have any other music or podcasts apps open at the time. The way this app works (and doesn’t work) is just very strange. I hope Apple treats this app as its own rather than a facade for Apple Music, because the content is actually quite great, it’s just super buggy.
Love this app and am so thankful that there now exits a platform dedicated to classical music (especially one created by such a respectable company). Beautiful portraits for the composers and wonderful organization of their works (biographies are also included on the profiles of many composers and a lot of popular works even have summaries which describe how they came to be). I love this app. BUT—the app itself performs terribly. It is buggy as can be and I cannot believe they would launch the application in such a state. 30% of the time you open the app you will first run into issues even getting a piece to play. Closing process and opening again does NOT work. It’s a shame and becomes really irritating when you try to play a song for 5+ minutes. Worst part is, no update yet. If it is not fixed, I cannot say I will continue my subscription—a shame, considering this is a beautiful application.
I’ve been patiently waiting for this app and it exceeded all my expectations!! I absolutely love the composer pages where you can see all the collected works, select a work, read about it, and see all the different recordings of just that work. The instrument specific pages are so great as well. Everything is so organized and logical. I also love the 9 part story of classical music and cant wait to listen to them. I’ll get to see how much I remember from my music history classes in university. This app is so exciting to me as a classical musician because it not only tells me that there is a demand for an app like this (yay! Classical music is alive!) but also because it is making classical music even more accessible, interesting, and digestible.
Never been compelled to write an app review but this is so far off the mark despite my initial enthusiasm (because a classical music app is so badly needed). What’s the point of extensive metadata if we can’t use it!? (1) I want to be able to shuffle across works (vs tracks). This seems obvious. Or search results (eg, all Bernstein conducted symphonies…) (2) I want to be able to shuffle across subgenre or even subgenre and further category/instrument (search tags -> play results??). Eg, baroque violin concerto or romantic minor symphony (3) where is all the music I’ve already saved? Only in album view?! Why not in the other sort categories? (4) recently played/added would be nice (5) works should save where you left off. I often listen to entire operas and want to return to the same spot later, even if I interrupt myself with another piece, which is often since one can’t just listen to opera all the time. (6) what does star mean? Am I saving it? Downloading it (evidently not, since I couldn’t use the app on the subway)? (7) downloading Only being detailed (I’m sorry for any inadvertent snark) because I care deeply about this team getting it right. I’m sure they have lots of competing priorities and feedback, but hopefully this is useful and resonates with what they’re hearing or experiencing themselves.
I have always struggled to find classical music, it’s not as popular as music you find on the radio, coupled with the fact that you really can’t find new artists or modern day classical music very easily. This app fixes all of that! It quite literally has so much and I honestly can’t wait to listen to all of it! There are a few hiccups with it playing tracks and loading though that definitely could be my wifi. I have also yet to find a place to download the tracks, but I am writing this review like the first day it came out. All in all, if you like classical music, are/were and dancer, need something to study to, or looking to try something new, this is the music app for you. 10/10 do absolutely recommend.
My first album played on the app was not a rousing success. Carmina Burana, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rutgers Choir, 1960 extended edition is a recording that I knew would challenge this new app and I was not overly surprised at the results. Track separations were erratic and did not conform to the original recording. There were long gaps between some tracks even in places where no gap should be. Especially annoying was during the dramatic conclusion of the work. The last three “tracks” should blend from one to the next with no gaps at all. Inexplicably, a 10 second or more gap of total silence was placed between the plaintive soprano solo of “Dulcissime” and the ensuing chorus of “Blanzifor Et Helena”. But it did get the transition from that chorus to the reprise of “O Fortuna” right without a gap. Here’s hoping Apple can get the wrinkles out in the near future.
While it is true that classical music has some specific features, having a separate app is not needed. Especially when it integrates so poorly with the rest of Apple Music and Apple’s ecosystem. Full of poor decisions. For example, when selecting to display “all” playlists from Apple Music, only some are shown. It turned out there is some misguided “logic”: it shows some songs in some playlist that the app thinks are classical. Very poor approach, coupled with a bad recognition algorithm… Besides some good additions like options to browse by composer, instrument, orchestra, it is not a major improvement of the Music app. Finally an iPad version is available but still no appleTv one to play it on a proper audio system. I expect that this app will disappear in a year or so. It is a nice display of the declining standards of a company that was once known for good integration, polished interfaces, and solid engineering.
I was eagerly waiting for this app ever since Apple bought out Primephonic. I do love the curation and suggested content, but it feels like a half-finished copy of a Apple Music. I drive frequently in low-service areas and have to download my albums, but with Classical I have to go back into the main Apple Music app to have that option…why? As an existing feature in one app and they’re basically carbon copy interfaces, that should be seamless. The interactive features that Primephonic specialized in and pioneered are absent as well, which Apple had promised to continue. Deep dives into compositions, rather like mini-courses, really helped one to experience the music in a whole new way. I hope they continue development, but this iteration feels rushed and incomplete. Downloading music from the app should be a priority.
It has a great search function to find pieces by a certain composer and have different recordings all laid out for you. But once you add them to your library, there’s no way to pull up a specific piece or composer among the tracks you’ve already added to your library/playlists. There’s no search function in the library or any of the playlists at all. If I want to find a specific recording, I have to scroll and search through the playlist. In the playlists, there isn’t even a way to change the order of the pieces. Overall the discovery search function is good, but it hasn’t even got all the features Primephonic did, and the over UI feels like something from the 2000s
I was so excited when I learned about this app, and so far it has not disappointed. Trying to listen to classical music on other music streaming apps - even Apple Music - has always been a huge pain. The biggest issue I’ve always had is not being able to have things easily searchable by composer. Other apps organize things by performer, which to be fair makes plenty of sense for other types of music. But when studying and exploring classical music it just doesn’t work. The fact that I can search a composer and find all of their work in one place is amazing. A great way to be able to explore and study the work of composers new and old! The categories for each instrument is also amazing. When students are learning different instruments, they can easily familiarize themselves with the core repertoire for their instrument. Not to mention the ability to browse various recordings to listen to different interpretations of the pieces. I am so glad this finally exists, a great way to make classical music easily accessible to everyone!!
Very nice to have a full iPad version. Next features: shuffle in playlists. I realize why one often doesn't want to shuffle a classical album, but the lovely "Essentials" playlists Apple provides would benefit from shuffle - I don't want to hear the first five tracks over and over again. As of now, I check mark the playlist then shuffle it in the regular music app. One other issue, which is really specific: It seems weird that Bach's Well Tempered Clavier are considered collections of individual works, rather than as two works, one per book. I realize that is how the Bach catalog labels them - each having its own BWV number - but it seems natural to treat each book as one work, too. Might just be a data design limitation?
The world of classical music is so hard to navigate, especially for beginners. I’m so happy people are digging into the intricacies of it all! Regular Apple Music doesn’t have a whole lot of options regarding pieces or recordings. I once looked up Beethoven spring sonata (one of my favs), and I could only get one recording of it. With Apple Music classical, I can get TONS of different recordings, so I can actually chose which ones I like. Also, I love the broad varieties of pieces. As a classical student, it was so hard to find the right pieces for what I was practicing - especially since they were less popular (Vivaldi concerto in g minor). Overall, great experience and I can’t wait to see what Apple Music develops next! 😁😁🎻🎻
Great idea, but it would seem better if the app were self-contained and fully separated my Apple Classical music library from my current Apple Music library. Now, when I add an album in Apple Classical it is also added to my Apple Music album list. I was able to access a greater depth of content through the classical app which was good. However, the overall listening experience would be better if the two app libraries were separated allowing a user to select shuffle and hear a platter of only classical music without having to go through the process of making separate playlists in Apple Music. As of now, 3 Ben Russell tracks then a random Dr. Dre track and then on to Joep Beving. Not ideal.
I just upgraded the app to 1.0.2 and I can no longer play a “recording”. This is the main way I would listen to a particular work. Let me explain. An album often has multiple works on it (two or three symphonies, for example, by Haydn). So I tap the three dots to the right of one of the movements and I pick “show recording“ which isolates the one symphony that I want, showing only that work. I then hit the play button to listen to it. This worked fine until I upgraded to 1.0.2. Now when I hit the play button, nothing happens. I have powered down the phone and powered up again, but that has not fixed it. So I can no longer listen to one specific work on an album as before. Please look into this and correct it.
Waited so long for someone to make this. This is perfect for those of use who don’t want to mix our classics, and our classicals, as well as other classical music/theatre apps or simply open multiple accounts with different streaming services. (Sorry, NTH, ADAGIO, METO, STAGE+!) Just the fact that I don’t have to mix with other music genres, and the catalog’s seamless search function within the app, has already improved my listening lifestyle. Love how well the app icon blends in my UI alongside Music app as well. Now, can we have Mac integration for the app since it looks like it’s available for iPhone only? Other than that, I’m highly impressed.
The library is awesome. The music quality is awesome. Also, there is no download feature so you have to stream high quality, lossless audio iusing your data plan or having to be tethered to WiFi. Hopefully they will fix these things because this app deserves it. Edit: The iPad version is released. I have now tried it and have an issue with recently added albums and artists not showing up in their respective category lists. While it's really nice to have an app dedicated to classical music and all the intricate details of its ecosystem, there are navigation, display, and functionality issues that keep me from wanting to prioritize it in my music streaming apps.
This is app wonderful, and I am so happy it is included with Apple Music. But if I may suggest some changes: - Add more pictures of artists/etc. - Make a more intuitive/creative library system. - Have a curated mood dial, like on the Idagio app. That means, for example, rather than browsing for pre-existing playlists loosely based on mood, you can choose a mood like “grieving” or “elated” or something like that, and it will give you pieces that match the mood. - Perhaps international classical radios like NRK Klassisk, Sveriges Radio P2, Radio Classique, etc. would be nice to have on the front page or their own page, as a nice way to discover new pieces and tastes around the world.
I was really excited about this app. I like instrumental music but I struggle to find good songs, and the recommendation playlists they give are great. I do wish it was a separate library from Apple Music, though. But that’s not horrible either. The main problem is some of the instrument playlists are a bit broken. The violin playlist, for example; it just stops after the first song and you can’t click on any of the others. (Note that all other playlists I’ve tried have worked fine, so I don’t think it’s an issue on my end). It’s a little irritating because I got the app to listen to new songs like those and it’s too broken to listen to them. Overall, it’s a great idea, it’s just not as well executed as I’d hoped.
The app doesn’t have a shuffle feature, lacks a lot of the control Apple Music comes with such as playlist editing en masse, swipe to remove, etc. And for larger playlists you can’t always select a song. I selected one lower in my playlist and it started playing a piece 20+ up the playlist. Impossible to select songs on the back half so I click and then have to skip a ton of recordings to get to the one I want. Furthermore, the amount of times that I have “added” something to my playlist and am adding lots at a time to find out that the last 15 additions were not added is insufferably high. One would think that because Apple made this and has Apple Music that it would have the bare functionality that Apple Music has and yet somehow it doesn’t. Oh and if you, like me, want to segregate your musical preferences so that on long drives your listening to the songs you like and not classical say goodbye. I get 14+ straight recommendations of classical when I’m in the Apple Music app because of this app. The good features, such as grouping all pieces together in a playlist and giving them a large title is a nice touch. IMHO, this app is too broken to be in the released state.
My initial review, (now replaced with this one) criticized the original release of this app that was the same on an iPad Pro as on an iPhone - screen size and all. I have two 27” Macs with second screens on each but I’ve given up my MacBook Pro and my go-to device is my iPad - with a Blue Tooth keyboard attached and being limited to an image the size of an iPhone on a 12.9” screen was “disappointing”. Apple listened and I’m now looking at a new app on my iPad that makes use of its screen size - visually and functionally. It’s wonderful and I intend to make full use of its capabilities managing the classical content in my library Thanks for responding Apple!
Like many of Apple’s native apps the idea is great, execution and design are clean but do not live up to the full potential. Not all works carry over seamlessly as they should. There needs to be a fine tuning to import soundtracks and movie scores as well, which suffer the same fate as classical music in the main Apple Music app. There needs to be an option to manually select titles to import, playlists to share between apps and an option to hide titles that are incorrectly shared between the two apps. Adding and removing titles from your library should give an option to add/remove from either or both apps. Options to edit your music meta data to avoid weird listings or incorrect or duplicate albums is missing in all mobile apps and sends users back to Mac versions. Like many modern Apple apps options to customize design, functionality and even to make use of the glaring empty space on screen would go the extra mile to make this or any app a must have and industry leading solution for creators, curators and consumers. Finally, the absence of an iPad or Mac equivalent is embarrassing at launch.
I am absolutely loving this app!! Got the app off the preorder and I have been using it all day. The categories and playlists make it so much easier to find what you like….and also dive into something you may not have heard before. I’m really loving the accessible list of new artists since I’m not entirely familiar with current musicians in the classical field. They’re super easy to find here. Playlists by instruments is what I’m really favoring at the moment, along with the composers playlists. Being a percussion player myself, it’s a joy to see percussion music so readily accessible and easy to find. IMO, Apple Music have really outdone themselves with this.
I was pleasantly surprised by this app. I’m a long-time Apple Music listener and expected this app would be a separate subscription, but after downloading it on a whim, I’m more than pleased. It is very organized, detailed, and makes finding your favorite pieces/composers/etc a breeze. Additionally, I enjoy the Editor’s Choice feature, which I’ve found is the highest quality recording of any piece you are searching for, which I love. Nuances are important and having a crystal clear, well-recorded, and well-produced option at a glance saves a lot of time of digging through the countless performances listed for famous pieces.
I feel like I’ve been waiting over twenty years for this app, since the dawn of the mp3 era, my non-classical music is easily organized by artist/album/song, but my library of classical works? Sometimes indexed by composer, sometimes performer, sometimes the title of a work. And now: perfection. Works, composers, styles, instruments, performers, it’s all indexable. What really stands out to me is the curation. This was obviously a work of love, taking apart the 1000s of classical albums in Apple Music, breaking them down by all of those possible groupings, and then coming up with “editors choices” and scholarly blurbs for each! A joy to explore and discover.
Get the app designed specifically for classical music. Available to Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost. Instantly find any recording in the world’s largest classical music catalog with search built for the genre. Enjoy the highest audio quality available (up to 24-bit/192 kHz Hi-Res Lossless) and hear classical favorites like never before in Spatial Audio—all with zero ads. Apple Music Classical also makes it easy for beginners to get to know the classical genre thanks to hundreds of Essentials playlists, insightful composer biographies, deep-dive guides for many key works, and intuitive browsing features. The Ultimate Classical Experience • Get unlimited access to the world’s largest classical music catalog (over 5 million tracks) with everything from new releases to celebrated masterpieces, plus thousands of exclusive albums. • Search by composer, work, conductor, or even catalog number, and find specific recordings instantly. • Listen in the highest audio quality (up to 24 bit/192 kHz Hi-Res Lossless) and enjoy thousands of recordings in immersive Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos. • Know exactly who and what you’re listening to thanks to complete, accurate metadata. • Learn about each classical period with The Story of Classical audio guides. • Dig deeper as you listen, with insightful album notes, descriptions of key works, and thousands of composer biographies. • Listen using AirPlay on compatible wireless devices. Requirements • Requires an Apple Music subscription (Individual, Student, Family, or Apple One). • Availability and features vary by country and region, plan, or device. The list of countries where Apple Music Classical is available can be found at https://support.apple.com/HT204411. • Apple Music Classical is available for all iPhones and iPads running iOS or iPadOS 15.4 or later. • To listen to music on Apple Music Classical, you must have an internet connection.
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