by In August 2021, Apple announced that it had acquired classical music service Primephonic. At the time, Apple said it planned to launch a dedicated classical music app this year, but time was running out if the company wanted to keep that promise.
“Apple Music plans to release a dedicated classical music app next year, combining Primephonic’s classic user interface that fans have come to love with more additional features,” said an Apple Newsroom press release shared last year. Apple has not made the plans public since then and did not respond to our requests for comment last month.
The app will replace Primephonic and provide users with a destination for streaming classical music like Beethoven and Mozart.
Primephonic’s website initially said it was “working on a great new classical music experience from Apple early next year”, but the phrase “early next year” was announced as “next year” on March 9, 2022, just a day after Apple arranged it. changed. Mac Studio is an event where the Studio Display, the fifth generation iPad Air and the third generation iPhone SE were introduced.
Primephonic’s service was shut down in September 2021, and at that time, subscribers got six months of free access to Apple Music. This means Primephonic subscribers will be able to listen to Apple Music until February.
In February, a code-level reference to “Open in Apple Classical” was discovered in a beta version of the Apple Music app for Android. Then, in May, similar references to “Open in Apple Classical” and “Shortcut to Apple Classical” were uncovered in the iOS 15.5 beta. These references were never made publicly visible, but may reveal that Apple has named the app, or at least plans to, Apple Classical rather than Apple Music Classical.
As backend preparations continue, more references to the classical music app were discovered in an XML file on Apple’s servers in late September. It is unclear whether the app will be built into iOS or will be released separately on the App Store.
Apple said it will combine the best features of Primephonic, including “better browsing and search capabilities by composer and repertoire” and “detailed displays of classical music metadata,” and the company may need more time to finish work on the task. . Primephonic also worked with a unique pay-per-second model rather than a pay-per-play model like Apple Music, so Apple may still be trying to find a pay-per-view model that it finds suitable for Apple Classical app.
At this point, the fate of Apple Classical is uncertain. Apple may launch the app in the next week or two and complete the deadline, or the launch may be delayed to 2023. A lesser probability is that Apple decided not to release a classical music app and instead took action to include more. classic features to Apple Music app in future iOS 16 or iOS 17 releases. In any case, Apple is currently keeping quiet about its plans.
