Why has Apple made a separate app for classical music?

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March 28 is a special day for anyone who appreciates Western classical music. The app Apple Music Classical will make its debut and for subscribers of Apple Music, it’s free to access.

This is Apple keeping its promise to offer a classical music app after acquiring the music service Primephonic in 2021. You already know this part but the bigger question is why do we need a separate app for classical music? Aren’t Apple Music or Spotify presenting that successfully? It’s a complicated question that has as an answer… metadata.

You are looking for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 on a music streaming service. What you will get is a list of recordings based on the “title track”. It’s unlike the time when we bought the same on vinyl or CD. The list that’s thrown at you on a streaming service will have all kinds of takes on the symphony, even energetic rock performances.

The problem is that the metadata considered by streaming services doesn’t take into account the conductor, orchestra and so on or things you would have read on the album sleeve in pre-streaming era before making a choice. A service like Spotify makes a lot of money from non-classical music and so, the search is quite good when it comes to pop music. Say you are looking for Frank Sinatra’s My Way. The streaming service will easily find it. Sure, you could be looking for a certain remastered edition or limited edition but at least you will find Frank Sinatra’s My Way if you key in the correct keywords. The same list may contain versions by Elvis Presley or Paul Anka. It’s a completely different game for classical music. There are, of course, arrangements but the interpretation of a piece is very important. The piano player in a track can make a difference to the piece. I want to find a “track” by time of recording, conductor, location and such metadata. Detailed metadata is integral to sorting classical music.

Can Apple make money from the app? First, the app is coming as a download on iPhones while the Android version is “coming soon”. To break even, the company doesn’t need a huge number of subscribers. According to a 2019 report in Wired, the potential worldwide market is 20m classical customers while only 100,000 is needed to break even. In way of technology, Apple has an advantage. It offers immersive spatial audio, which can make any classical music stand out. Music can be streamed in high-quality audio of up to 192 kHz/24-bit Hi-Res Lossless, which makes it worth the effort.

Recently Spotify announced a TikTok-like feed that is giving music lovers a feeling that the app is slowly moving away from its core audience. On the other hand, Apple is diving deeper and deeper towards celebrating music in all its glory. And that will make a massive difference between Apple Music and other players.

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