Classical music listeners usually have a tough time streaming via apps and are often found using platforms other than Spotify or Apple Music, which means extra cost in way of subscription fees. Apple seems to be on the right track. The company has made an excellent purchase — The Amsterdam-based service Primephonic, which had launched in 2014.

The purchase will ensure Apple Music subscribers “get a significantly improved classical music experience”. In the months to come, classical fans will get a dedicated experience with 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.

Making classical music a streaming challenge is available metadata or all the information about a digital music file. When it comes to classical music, there needs to be relevant metadata, like the name of the piece of music, the composer, the album it’s from, the performers, the label that released the recording and year of recording. What makes it complex are various movements and each piece of music has been recorded by several different artistes.

The company has announced that “a dedicated classical music app” is coming next year, “combining Primephonic’s classical user interface that fans have grown to love with more added features”.

Existing subscribers of Primephonic 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. Primephonic as we know it now will cease to exist on September 7.

Know more

• Online classical music store Primephonic has been serving the classical music scene since 2014, offering high-quality downloads from an enormous catalogue, and in 2017 it launched a streaming service.

• Making classical music a streaming challenge is available metadata or all the information about a digital music file.