Mega tech corporation buys, shuts down, and swallows the intellectual property of tiny tech company. It's a story we see over and over. This time, trillion-dollar corporation Apple acquires Primephonic, a pioneer in serving classical music listeners as a niche streaming music service.
Classical music fans have special needs. For popular music, it's enough to know the artist or song title. Classical aficionados may want to see recordings featuring specific conductors, periods, ensembles, composers, or works. Standard music streaming services like Spotify—though they include a healthy selection of the relevant genres—simply don't provide the tools that let users narrow down tracks in these ways.
According to Apple's press release: "Apple Music Classical fans will get a dedicated experience with the best features of Primephonic. Apple Music plans to launch a dedicated classical music app next year combining Primephonic’s classical user interface that fans have grown to love with more added features."
Primephonic's departure to Apple-land leaves Idagio the sole classical-only streaming service in the field. Primephonic's distinguishing features have been its podcasts hosted by noted classical musicians and its curated playlists, though it lacks Idagio's live-streaming concert options. Apple's press release doesn't mention the podcasts.
Primephonic supports audio quality up to 24-bit 192kHz Hi-Res and lets users view the CD liner notes, but the Qobuz service, which includes as large a classical catalog, offered more Hi-Res tracks and CD booklets in my testing. Qobuz does a great job of providing album background on the player page as well. Apple Music tops out at 24-bit 48kHz by default. For either service, you need external hardware such as a DAC to actually hear the higher-quality streams.
Primephonic is no longer open to new subscribers and the service will be retired starting Sept. 7. Current Primephonic subscribers will receive six months of Apple Music.
Read more about the transition at primephonic.com, or check out our roundup of the best streaming services for high-quality music.