Apple to launch its classical music app on March 28

The company announced that Apple Music Classical, a standalone app specializing in the genre, will launch on March 28. After acquiring music service Primephonic in 2021, Apple initially aimed to establish a classical music-focused app by the end of last year. It fell short of that goal, but now the service is almost here. Instead of being included natively in iOS, it will come as a standalone release on the App Store. Access to the app comes included with a standard Apple Music subscription.

"Apple Music Classical makes it quick and easy to find any recording in the world's largest classical music catalog with fully optimized search, and listeners can enjoy the highest audio quality available and experience many classical favorites in a whole new way with immersive spatial audio," Apple wrote in a press release.

Apple Music Classical will stream up to 192 kHz/24-bit lossless high-resolution, and Apple says it will include "thousands" of spatial audio recordings. Like Primephonic, it will offer complete and accurate classical metadata - a challenge for services that bring all music genres together in one destination - and you'll be able to search "by composer, work, conductor or even catalog number, and find specific recordings instantly."

It's worth noting that there won't be a native iPad version of the app, and Apple confirmed that Apple Music Classical wouldn'tinclude offline downloads at launch.

Going the extra mile to appeal to classical music fans could help set Apple Music apart as the company continues to try to carve away Spotify's lead in subscription music. Yesterday, Spotify announced a revamped interface that borrows design cues from TikTok and other social apps. According to Apple's press release, at first, Apple Music Classical will be exclusive to iOS, but an Android version is "coming soon".