Apple Music Classical 4+

I want to like it, but it’s not there yet

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.

Quite Intruguing

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.

A Pleasure for Classical Music Lovers

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.

Developer Response ,

We are happy to share that Apple Music Classical now also offers a dedicated app for iPad.