Apple’s new app aims to make classical music easier to access

In the age of streaming, classical music fans have had reason to grumble.

It can be difficult for seasoned listeners to find what they want on platforms like Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, and YouTube, which are optimized for pop fans looking for the latest by Taylor Swift or Beyoncé. And for curious newcomers, the algorithmic loops of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major and Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca can be hard to get past.

Last week, Apple released a standalone app that aims to address these issues. The app known as Classic Apple MusicIt features an accurate search engine, an elegant interface, and a host of features aimed at making classical music more accessible, including beginner’s guides to different musical eras and commentary from notable artists such as violinist Hilary Han and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Apple hopes the app, which has been in development since 2021, when the company acquired Primephonic, an Amsterdam-based classics broadcaster startup, will attract ardent classics fans and new listeners alike. But it’s still not clear how much traction the app could get in a crowded streaming market, where Apple competes with giants like Spotify as well as classic dedicated services like Edagio.

“This is just the beginning,” Oliver Chaucer, Apple’s vice president, said in an interview, adding that Apple will continue to improve and build the application database. “We’re really serious about this.”

I spent a few days testing Apple Music Classical, experimenting with the search, playlists, and directories for classical music. (The app is currently only available on the iPhone, though an Android version is in the works; for now, there is no desktop version.) Here are my impressions.

Cut through metadata

For pop music, the artist, track, and album list is generally sufficient. But in the classics there are more nuances in the metadata: composer, work, soloist, ensemble, instrument, conductor, movement and title (like Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto or Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony).

The company says Apple has collected 50 million data points in the app — including about 20,000 composers, 117,000 works, 350,000 moves, and five million tracks — and the search function generally feels more intuitive than its competitors.

On several streaming platforms, I’ve had difficulty finding Rachmaninoff’s recordings of his compositions. For example, a search of his name on Spotify returns an unstructured display of his most popular works, such as “Rhapsody on a Paganini Theme,” performed by a variety of artists.

But in Apple Music Classical, it’s easier to quickly locate his recordings because the app can distinguish between a Rachmaninoff the composer and a Rachmaninoff the pianist or conductor. The search function is not perfect. The song “Rachmaninoff” by Chinese pianist Niu Niu also appears on mixtapes of the Rachmaninoff recordings. But the app makes searching for specific pieces of music much easier.

sprawling group

Apple Music Classical has a clean and attractive interface that mimics the main Apple Music app. But it still has a problem that has long troubled classic broadcasting: the sheer size of its catalog.

A search for Verdi’s “Aida,” for example, turns up 1,330 records. Apple has tried to make a sprawling menu like this easier to navigate. The “Aida” page, for example, contains a brief description of the opera, an “editor’s choice” recording (Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra del Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia), and five of the most frequently played versions.

But it can still feel overwhelming. It helps to know exactly what you’re looking for: the list can be searched, scrolled, or sorted by popularity, name, release date, or duration. If you’re interested in “Aida” recordings featuring Leontyne Price in the title role, for example, you can type in “Leontyne” and find her performances under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf, Georg Solti, Thomas Schippers, and others.

Opera can be particularly difficult to navigate on streaming platforms due to the long lists of cast members. While Apple comprehensively lists the singers on each track, it can be hard to quickly tell who the stars are when looking at the albums. This could be fixed with more consistent album descriptions, or an option to zoom in on album covers to make the lyrics more legible. And while Apple has introduced the ability to search by lyrics for pop songs, the classic doesn’t have that feature yet.

Apple makes the breadth of the classical repertoire more manageable with innovative playlists, which help bring popular recordings back to life. These playlists cover a wide variety of genres, including opera, renaissance music, art songs, and minimalism. There are also lists of composers, including the usual suspects – Bach, Mozart and Beethoven – as well as contemporary artists like Kaiga Saryayo and Steve Reich. “Hidden Gems” highlights overlooked albums (“Breaking Waves,” a collection of flute music by Swedish women, for example, or “Consolation: Forgotten Treasures of the Ukrainian Soul”). Undiscovered Composers features lesser-known works by notable composers, such as Beethoven’s Scottish Songs.

Attracting newcomers

Apple hopes the app will help attract new listeners to classical music, and many of the features aim to shed its elitist image.

On the main screen, the app offers a nine-part introduction called “The Story of a Classic,” which has been described as a guide to the “weird and wonderful world of classical music.” The series takes listeners from the Baroque era into the 21st century, with further forays into medieval and Renaissance music.

A series called “Track by Track” contains commentary by popular artists, including Hahn and Ma. Cellist Abel Slocwe, presented an album of pieces by Bach and folk songs from South Africa and Tanzania, describes how chant music from England and the Netherlands mingled with African culture. Pianist Vikinor Olafsson talks about feeling naked on stage when he plays Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16, “a piece we all have to face as pianists.”

Part of Apple’s mission seems to be to help uplift overlooked artists, especially women and people of color. For example, the Composers tab starts with Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart but then expands to Clara Schumann, Caroline Shaw, and Errollyn Wallen, as well as William Grant Still.

Pianist Alice Sara Ott and conductor Karina Kanilakis appear in an exclusive recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Radio Netherlands Philharmonic.

While using the app one morning, I came across the music of Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th-century Benedictine nun and composer of Gregorian chant. I soon discover that Hildegard is a star on the app, described as a scholar, mystic, writer, and philosopher and sitting next to Tchaikovsky on the list of composers. (Many great composers have been given enhanced digital portraits as part of Apple’s efforts to make them more realistic; Hildegard usually appears, with a piercing stare.)

Hildegard’s music could easily be lost in the chaos of broadcasting. But in the world of Apple, you get a new life.