Apple buys music streaming service, intends to launch a classical music app

Apple has announced its purchase of the classical music streaming service Primephonic, the contents of which will be used to improve the Apple Music experience for fans of the classical genre.



In the "Classical" Apple Music section users are said to soon be receiving the best features of Primephonic, such as better browsing and search by composer or repertoire, enriched classical music metadata within the app, and more.

Primephonic’s co-founder and CEO Thomas Steffens made his own statement, in which he equates this acquisition to bringing classical music to the mainstream and calls it a "tremendous development for the classical music industry".

The Primephonic app and website are of course to be taken down a week from now, on September 7.

Apple's dedicated classical music app is set for launch in 2022

Next year Primephonic will be given new life as an entirely new dedicated classical music app by Apple, likely to be available only on iDevices like the iPhone and iPad. The app is planned to combine Primephonic’s classical user interface with new features and tweaks.

Until then, classical music fans who are already subscribers of Primephonic can currently get six months of Apple Music for free, in addition to a prorated refund, in order to make this transition easier.

And what exactly was Primephonic before this acquisition? Basically a fairly traditional streaming service and app, but with a focus on classical music. On its website right now, there's a statement explaining that it has been difficult for Primephonic to reach a global audience of classical listeners as a small, lone company, and why getting bought by Apple will help the Primephonic team achieve the goals it has set out for itself: