Apple Music Classical begins rolling out to international users

This weekend when I went into Music to play my own library, up popped an ad for Apple Classical. I read it, and came to a promotional video. I clicked on it to get an idea of what it will be like.

The video would only play if I already subscribed to AppleMusic.

Considering that part of the rational for AC is to get more people to subscribe to AM, putting your ad for AC behind an AM paywall, something many of us don’t subscribe to, is pretty F-ing stupid. 

So far I’ve not been impressed with how Apple is handling AC. I’ll wait for the reviews, but…

DAalseth said:

This weekend when I went into Music to play my own library, up popped an ad for Apple Classical. I read it, and came to a promotional video. I clicked on it to get an idea of what it will be like.

The video would only play if I already subscribed to AppleMusic.

Considering that part of the rational for AC is to get more people to subscribe to AM, putting your ad for AC behind an AM paywall, something many of us don’t subscribe to, is pretty F-ing stupid. 

So far I’ve not been impressed with how Apple is handling AC. I’ll wait for the reviews, but…

Given that they're only rolling it out on iPhones initially, it would not be unreasonable to think that Apple is going for a bit of a 'soft opening' here, in order to get their sea legs. Starting with a single platform that is not typically connected to a lot of non-Apple gear, and also focusing on existing Apple Music subscribers will significantly narrow the variables they have to keep up with during the initial startup. This way, they can deal primarily with making sure the system is working as intended. 

Classical music fans who already have their own libraries set up and listen it on an AppleTV hooked to a sound system, or worse, a Mac hooked to a sound system, or still yet worse, a PC hooked to a sound system and still yet even worse, haven't previously subscribed to a streaming service are all going to be prone to claiming that the system isn't working, not because the system actually isn't working, but because it's not working the way they have independently devised a digital classical music catalog to work. 

Apple Music Classical is at long last a major music provider coming along to fill the void left by streaming, digital download and physical record stores that have all always structured their systems to cater to popular music. The thing is, while there's been a void, there hasn't been a vacuum. Just about every classical music enthusiast will have improvised their own file tagging and cataloging, etc., and each one of them will have done so a little differently, and with a high level of confidence that their way is the right way. This means that for almost all of those enthusiasts, Apple Music Classical will have done it the wrong way, or at minimum, not the best way. Many will want to be able to customize the AMC UI to make it work their way, and that's almost surely not going to be a thing. 

So yeah, it's probably a good idea for them to do a soft opening on the iPhone geared primarily to people who already have an Apple Music subscription. 

AppleZulu said:

DAalseth said:

This weekend when I went into Music to play my own library, up popped an ad for Apple Classical. I read it, and came to a promotional video. I clicked on it to get an idea of what it will be like.

The video would only play if I already subscribed to AppleMusic.

Considering that part of the rational for AC is to get more people to subscribe to AM, putting your ad for AC behind an AM paywall, something many of us don’t subscribe to, is pretty F-ing stupid. 

So far I’ve not been impressed with how Apple is handling AC. I’ll wait for the reviews, but…

Given that they're only rolling it out on iPhones initially, it would not be unreasonable to think that Apple is going for a bit of a 'soft opening' here, in order to get their sea legs. Starting with a single platform that is not typically connected to a lot of non-Apple gear, and also focusing on existing Apple Music subscribers will significantly narrow the variables they have to keep up with during the initial startup. This way, they can deal primarily with making sure the system is working as intended. 

Classical music fans who already have their own libraries set up and listen it on an AppleTV hooked to a sound system, or worse, a Mac hooked to a sound system, or still yet worse, a PC hooked to a sound system and still yet even worse, haven't previously subscribed to a streaming service are all going to be prone to claiming that the system isn't working, not because the system actually isn't working, but because it's not working the way they have independently devised a digital classical music catalog to work. 

Apple Music Classical is at long last a major music provider coming along to fill the void left by streaming, digital download and physical record stores that have all always structured their systems to cater to popular music. The thing is, while there's been a void, there hasn't been a vacuum. Just about every classical music enthusiast will have improvised their own file tagging and cataloging, etc., and each one of them will have done so a little differently, and with a high level of confidence that their way is the right way. This means that for almost all of those enthusiasts, Apple Music Classical will have done it the wrong way, or at minimum, not the best way. Many will want to be able to customize the AMC UI to make it work their way, and that's almost surely not going to be a thing. 

So yeah, it's probably a good idea for them to do a soft opening on the iPhone geared primarily to people who already have an Apple Music subscription. 

I’ll grant you some of what you say. BUT not letting people see the promotional video unless they have an AM subscription is a chrome plated neon light illuminated F-up. Fine to do a soft roll out, but the idea is to get a buzz going. Get people interested and excited for when they do open it up wider. To lock up their commercials is just stupid. 

They are competing against the classical streaming service I already have and have paid for, and are losing BADLY. 

You can’t download to listen offline.

🤦‍♂️

The app experience is great. Hopefully they adopt it for the Music app.

dymmas said:

You can’t download to listen offline.

🤦‍♂️

The app experience is great. Hopefully they adopt it for the Music app.

How does the app experience differ to the Music app's?