Apple Buys Classical Music Streaming Service Primephonic

Apple Music is pushing more extensively into classical music. Apple announced it has acquired Primephonic, the renowned classical music streaming service that offers an outstanding listening experience with search and browses functionality optimized for the classical genre, premium-quality audio, handpicked expert recommendations, and extensive contextual details on repertoire and recordings. Users should prepare to welcome Primephonic’s functionality and playlists on Apple Music. The result will be “a significantly improved classical music experience,” Apple said in a blog post. There will also be a standalone Apple Music classical app coming sometime in 2022.

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 the 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 my repertoire, detailed displays of classical music metadata, plus new features and benefits.”

Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats said “We love and have a deep respect for classical music, and Primephonic has become a fan favorite for classical enthusiasts, together, we’re bringing great new classical features to Apple Music, and in the near future, we’ll deliver a dedicated classical experience that will truly be the best in the world.” said Schusser

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. “Bringing the best of Primephonic to Apple Music subscribers is a tremendous development for the classical music industry,” said Thomas Steffens, Primephonic’s co-founder, and CEO. “Artists love the Primephonic service and what we’ve done in classical, and now we have the ability to join with Apple to deliver the absolute best experience to millions of listeners. We get to bring classical music to the mainstream and connect a new generation of musicians with the next generation of audience.”

Primephonic launched three years ago, it was launched to ensure that classical music stay relevant for future generations. Its team says this deal is about the scale and reach more listeners. “As a classical-only startup, we cannot reach the majority of global classical listeners, especially those that listen to many other music genres as well,” the company wrote in a note on its webpage. “We, therefore, concluded that in order to achieve our mission, we need to partner with a leading streaming service that encompasses all music genres and also shares our love for classical music.”

In the meantime, current Primephonic subscribers will receive six months of Apple Music for free, providing access to hundreds of thousands of classical albums, all in Lossless and high-resolution audio, as well as hundreds of classical albums in Apple Music’s Spatial Audio, with new albums, added regularly.