Back in April 2021 Apple purchased the classical music streaming service Primephonic with a view to launching its own Apple Music-branded dedicated platform.
Primephonic duly closed down in September that year ahead of a planned relaunch under the Apple banner. However, despite the promise of the alternative service landing in early 2022, it’s still absent a year on.
Well, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel, judging by the the latest iOS 16.3 beta. The iSoftware Updates Twitter account (via Apple Insider) delved into the strings in the Music app and found it had been renamed as Apple Music Classical, as opposed to just Apple Classical.
That doesn’t necessarily suggest it’ll arrive within iOS 16.3, because we’d probably be seeing more evidence of it within the beta, but it does suggest Apple is still hard at work on the service.
If Apple Music Classical were to arrive in iOS 16.3, which will launch to the public next week, we’d have expected the company to promote it when the announcement of its new HomePod speaker earlier this week.
Apple still hasn’t revealed its intentions for the service, or whether it’ll be bundled into Apple Music or launched as a standalone option. When the acquisition was announced in April 2021, Primephonic said it was selling up to reach a wider audience of classical music fans, but that’s the last official word we got on the matter.
The company wrote: “As a classical-only startup, we can not reach the majority of global classical listeners, especially those that listen to many other music genres as well. 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. Today, we are therefore thrilled to share a great step forward in our mission – Primephonic is joining Apple Music!
“We are working on an amazing new classical music experience from Apple for early next year, but unfortunately, the Primephonic service will be taken offline starting September 7. You may continue to use it at no charge until then.”
You might like…
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
