Fourteen months after its launch, the dust has settled on Apple Music Classical and the tumult in the market for quality on-demand listening platforms. Several things are clear, notably the question of capital gains through exclusivities.
The launch of Apple Music Classical, on March 28, 2023, had raised many hopes by the simple fact that such a company was suddenly interested in the classical music market. We must not be naive: a precisely targeted “classic” clientele is of great interest for the technology giant, at a time when the profiling of consumers and their “digital circle” has become a major marketing issue . The benefit of building, identifying and observing a clientele goes well beyond the simple sale of music subscriptions, as shown by the rise on the stock market of the company Spotify.
In Canada, to the presence of Apple Music Classical was added the on-demand listening service of Presto, the arrival in the country of the high technical quality listening service Qobuz at a time when Tidal was losing its footing seeing s This same added value disappears with the collapse of MQA technology.
Over the past year, things have settled down: Presto and Idagio exploit their niche with their dedicated search tools, which compete with Apple Music Classical (with its own version) and Qobuz (with its added sound value argument). The surprise development was the resurgence of Tidal, which tried to get out of the mess by lowering prices: $10.99 for high resolution and lossless audio, with a family plan from six users to 16 $.99, and $4.99 for students! Tidal having the advantage of being installed ex-factory in numerous high-fidelity equipment, its direct competitor Qobuz had to more or less fall into line. This is a good thing for the consumer.
The integration of Presto into the Bluesound ambient listening system has also given a valuable boost to this emerging platform, which is becoming “the” choice for Bluesound fans who only listen to classical and jazz.
Apple Music Classical remains an application for phones and tablets. On computer, it is available in the “Classical music” section of Apple Music, when you select “Music by genre”.
The issue of added value
From the outset, Apple Music Classical stood out for the number of its playlists and its “handling” of the listener, regardless of their level of familiarity with the classic. We wrote in 2023 that if Apple were to stand out among more discerning music lovers, it would be through exclusives. After a year, the result is less spectacular than hoped, but the added value is real.
Two things are moving. First, the industry is increasingly focusing on Dolby Atmos mixes, which Apple Music loves. Technology seems sought after in this type of listening, particularly with high-end headphones such as AirPods Max. A new section, “Now in spatial audio”, is dedicated to them.
Next, the “Exclusive Albums” section includes some interesting material. Here we must distinguish the effects of announcements from “real business”. In the summer of 2023, Apple boasted a partnership with the Salzburg Festival, which was simply the promotion of a playlist of published and known documents. On the other hand, the aforementioned section includes, from the Metropolitan Opera, Champion by Blanchard and Hamlet by Brett Dean, two concerts at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, a 7th of Beethoven by Pappano in London and several aptly chosen concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic. Among them, a remarkable Alpine Symphony by Thielemann, a sumptuous Altinoglu-Capuçon concert, an evening with Martha Argerich and Zubin Mehta, or the 9th Symphony by Beethoven that Riccardo Muti has just conducted for the 200e anniversary of the work.
Casually, this is the only source of new and recent sound documents (accessible on no other platform and not intended for a CD edition) from one of the five best orchestras in the world!
Section to watch, therefore, hoping that it will be enriched and renewed further. Because if, in the same way as Vienna and, in this capacity, London, Amsterdam and Philadelphia, for example, “delivered” five or six concerts per year to Apple Music Classical, this would represent a fairly irresistible power of attraction for the platform.