Apple Acquires 'Primephonic' To Bolster Standalone Apple Music Classical App In 2022 (theverge.com) 22
Today, Apple announced that it has acquired Primephonic, a service that specializes in streaming the classical genre, and will incorporate the app's functionality and playlists into Apple Music. The result will be "a significantly improved classical music experience," Apple said in a press release. There will also be a standalone Apple Music classical app coming sometime in 2022. The Verge reports: Effective immediately, Primephonic is no longer accepting new customers, and the service as it exists today will shut down on September 7th. Apple says Primephonic's playlists and "exclusive audio content" will be first to be integrated into Apple Music. Down the line, it'll add "the best features of Primephonic, including better browsing and search capabilities by composer and by repertoire, detailed displays of classical music metadata, plus new features and benefits." In a show of how serious Apple is about appealing to classical fans, the company says "a dedicated classical music app" will launch next year that will use Primephonic's "classical user interface that fans have grown to love."
Dead Already? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Dead Already? (Score:4, Insightful)
I imagine it's less about having exclusive recordings and more about metadata and organizing the recordings in a way that's relevant to classical music (which is not by Artist, Album, and Track.)
In other words, they're doing what foobar2000 did 15 years ago. Except you don't actually get to keep any of the music, so Apple can charge you perpetually for access to it, until they want to yank it away from you, which can be at any time of their choosing.
Re:Dead Already? (Score:5, Insightful)
Being an avid classical music listener, I had never heard of them (who needs them when you have YouTube?)
An "avid" listener to any music genre isn't going to be satisfied with YouTube quality.
Recently watched a professionally produced concert movie on YouTube. It had 4K video... and OPUS audio averaging under 140 kbps.
Re: (Score:2)
and OPUS audio averaging under 140 kbps
Pray tell, can you tell the difference (assuming it wasn't transcoded from crap like 320kbps MP3)? Generally, to ABX opus above 128kbps you need to be in a sound lab.
Re: (Score:2)
The last sentence of the summary does look rather sarcastic, with the subtext "In a show of how serious Apple is about appealing to classical fans, the company has destroyed an app tailored to them and promises to resurrect it next year". Embrace, extinguish, extend?
If this improves the metadata... (Score:5, Insightful)
The metadata used by Apple is terrible for classical. It's inconsistent, incomplete (e.g. "grouping" to assemble tracks into a specific work), and generally not thought through. The support for album (versus track) music, including classical, in Apple's Music.app is also broken. On the Mac, I can "shuffle by album, grouping, or track" in a playlist, but on iOS only by track (sorted by track name - do you know how many tracks in a classical collection are named "Adagio"??)
Re: If this improves the metadata... (Score:2)
Came here to say this. Every time I have tried to let Apple update metadata, it gets worse.
Iâ(TM)ve ripped my CDs to FLAC and play them through a third party player on my iPhone.
Re:If this improves the metadata... (Score:4, Insightful)
The article leaves the impression Apple Music will accommodate the Primephonic metadata. It also mentions a dedicated classical music app, using the Primephonic interface. I wonder if they'll charge extra for it, or it will come standard with Apple Music?
Re:If this improves the metadata... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Virtual Folders [wikipedia.org] would be more flexible.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: If this improves the metadata... (Score:2)
So that you can both easily find âoeall the schostavovich I haveâ, and also âoeall the piano concertos I haveâ, and also âoethat cello suite by Bach in C minorâ
Re: (Score:3)
The issue I have with classical music is when a CD has e.g. pieces from two different composers. I generally like to put an entire album into one folder. I also sort the classical music by e.g. periods. Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, Post-Modern, etc. But when there's two different composers in one album this makes it harder especially if they are of different periods.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The metadata used by Apple is terrible for classical. It's inconsistent, incomplete (e.g. "grouping" to assemble tracks into a specific work), and generally not thought through. The support for album (versus track) music, including classical, in Apple's Music.app is also broken. On the Mac, I can "shuffle by album, grouping, or track" in a playlist, but on iOS only by track (sorted by track name - do you know how many tracks in a classical collection are named "Adagio"??)
I've done Apple, and Spotify, and self-ripping. All have been terrible, even self-ripping, where I frequently faced the dilemma of whether to spend time correcting almost-good-enough CDDB tags.
Metadata really should include the ability to handle multiple soloists and performance groups (Third Coast Percussion with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). It needs to handle grouping movements together for playback in order, even in shuffle mode. And, while I am fantasizing, can we please get a solution to alterna
Re: (Score:2)
Imagine the vastness of this market...classical music fans who enjoy writing SQL queries!
I know at least a half-dozen friends who fit this. So the market may be larger than you think.
Tuning in. (Score:2)
In a show of how serious Apple is about appealing to classical fans, the company says "a dedicated classical music app" will launch next year that will use Primephonic's "classical user interface that fans have grown to love."
The first app...with a knob.
Re: (Score:2)
This is really good news. (Score:1)
Not the right message (Score:2)
They're shutting down the existing service a week from now, and they'll introduce a new app to replace it sometime next year. That is not the way you show your dedication to the fans. That's how you show you don't care about them and only see them as a market segment. Pull the service they're relying on with hardly any notice, give a vague promise that you'll have a replacement at some indefinite future time, and expect them to be satisfied.