Apple launches Apple Music Classical app

Originally promised for 2022, and continually rumored to be about to launch, Apple Music Classical has finally been officially announced.

"Apple Music Classical makes it quick and easy to find any recording in the world's largest classical music catalog with fully optimized search," said Apple in a statement, "and listeners can enjoy the highest audio quality available, and experience many classical favorites in a whole new way with immersive spatial audio."

"[It] is the ultimate classical experience with hundreds of curated playlists, thousands of exclusive albums, insightful composer biographies, deep-dive guides for many key works, intuitive browsing features and much more," continued Apple.

"Apple Music Classical will launch later this month," says the company, "and Apple Music subscribers will be able to download and enjoy the Apple Music Classical app as part of their existing subscription at no additional cost."

While the service is not yet available, the new Apple Music Classical app can be pre-ordered from the App Store now. It's a free download — listed as being solely for the iPhone, and curiously not yet even for the iPad — and after preordering, will automatically be downloaded upon release.

Apple Music Classical requires iOS 15.4 or later, and any Apple Music subscription except the Apple Music Voice Plan. It will be available at launch wherever Apple Music is, except China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

What's included

When launched, the app will include "hundreds of Essentials playlists, insightful composer biographies, deep-dive guides for many key works, and intuitive browsing features," says Apple.

It will contain "over 5 million tracks," which range from "new releases to celebrated masterpieces, plus thousands of exclusive albums."

Those tracks will feature the "highest audio quality (up to 192 kHz/24 bit Hi-Res Lossless) with thousands of recordings in immersive spatial audio."

Classical music searches have always been a criticism of Apple Music, given the complexity of multiple versions of works. Apple says the new app will allow users to search "by composer, work, conductor, or even catalog number."

"Benefit from complete and accurate metadata to make sure you know exactly what and who you are playing," continues the app's listing. "Learn while you listen, with thousands of composer biographies, descriptions of key works, and more."

Apple Music Classical was originally announced in 2021 when Apple bought the existing classical music subscription service, Primephonic.