Apple Music Classical is getting some major upgrades in a bid to boost its usability credentials. The specialist music service for classical music aficionados made its bow in 2023 and remains available to current Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost, running parallel with the core service via its own separate mobile app.
Teased as the platform's "biggest ever upgrade" since launch, Apple Music Classical now has three new features: listening guides, personalised recommendations and editorial stations, all designed to give users a more in-depth understanding of the music on offer.
Listening guides inform users about a given work of music as they listen, highlighting details and explaining the music in real time as it unfolds. Text appears on-screen as users listen, adding context and descriptions in a bid to enhance and contextualise a given work, with "hundreds of recordings" available in English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese.
Apple Music Classical isn't the first service to offer these kinds of editorial features. Hi-res platform Qobuz, for instance, prides itself on its accompanying editorial features, interviews and reviews, all of which are written and curated by human editors and presented in a separate section of the platform.
Other new additions to the platform include personalised recommendations which access a user's listening history to better develop a curated taste profile, as well as editorial stations which continually play music arranged by instrument, composer, period, and genre, all curated by Apple Music Classical’s specialist editors.
According to Anjali Malhotra, Apple Music Classical's Global Director, “The features in this update are the most significant additions to Apple Music Classical since launch. They each turn a normal listening experience into a wonderful journey that enhances the listener's experience, catering to curiosity and creating new interactive ways to learn about favourite pieces of music.”
Despite classical music's rarified or slightly niche appeal, Apple seems to be backing its dedicated platform. Apple Music Classical recently received desktop access in March of this year, while this new trio of upgrades again signals Apple's intent to give the app sufficient support.
If it results in more people getting into classical music, it's fine by us.
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Apple Music Classical: release date, price, hi-res, spatial audio and first impressions
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