Apple on Thursday announced Apple Music Classical, a dedicated standalone app offering Apple Music subscribers access to more than 5 million music in the genre in high-quality audio, including exclusive albums and a host of curated playlists. Apple Music Classical will launch on March 28th, but it’s available for pre-order on the app store.
“Apple Music Classical makes it quick and easy to find any recording in the world’s largest classical music catalog with fully optimized search, and listeners can enjoy the highest audio quality available, and experience many classical favorites in a whole new way with immersive spatial audio,” Apple said in a statement.
In 2021 after acquiring Primephonic, it was thought Apple would release its standalone classical music streaming experience earlier. Apple said Apple Music subscribers “will get a significantly improved classical music experience beginning with Primephonic playlists and exclusive audio content.” When Apple Music Classical launches on March 28th, it will support iOS 15.4 devices and newer, and listeners will be to stream audio up to 192 kHz/24-bit hi-res lossless with thousands of recordings available in Spatial audio.
An Android version of the standalone classical streaming app is “coming soon,” according to Apple. The Verge confirms that there will not be a native iPad app, and offline downloads will not be available at the launch for Apple Music Classical.
At launch, Apple Music Classical will contain editorial notes about famous composers and descriptions of their works. Famous composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin and Johann Sebastian Bach will have high-resolution digital portraits in the app at launch, with more to come soon.
Image: Apple
