Kicking off on Android for Apple Music Classical. Apple’s classical music streaming service, with its 700 expertly curated playlists, is making its way to the Play Store today, just two months after its debut on iOS.
It was basically only a matter of time, but Apple acted quickly. Two months after its debut on iOS, Apple Music Classical is coming to Android and its Play Store. Resulting from the acquisition of Primephonic two years ago, and evoked by the rumor since the beginning of last year, the streaming service of classical music in streaming of the giant of Cupertino finally arrived on iPhone at the beginning of March. Its Android version does not change the formula, but will allow users evolving outside the Apple ecosystem to take advantage of a platform tailored to music lovers.
And in this regard, Apple Music Classical does things well, starting with the audio quality offered. As on iPhone, this Android version offers access to more than 5 million songs in Lossless Hi-Res, with a maximum quality of 192 kHz/24 bits. Several thousand titles also feature Spatial Audio technology for a more immersive experience with compatible hardware.
Apple Music Classical, now available on Android
At the same time, the platform still offers its specialized search engine (by composer or by work, among other criteria) and more than 700 playlists created by experts. As rightly pointed out TechRadaron the other hand, we are surprised that Apple has chosen to launch Music Classical on Android before any deployment on Mac and iPad.
An astonishing strategy at Apple, but which certainly has to do with the heritage of the platform: at the time of Primephonic, the service was indeed available on both iOS and Android. We therefore imagine that Apple wants to quickly woo former Android users of Primephonic, by bringing it back to the Play Store as Apple Music Classical. However, it’s a safe bet that the next step will be a deployment of the platform on other Apple devices.
Be careful though, Apple Music Classical on Android involves some “limitations”. Logically, the service should in particular dispense with the Apple Music Voice function, the latter exploiting Siri to work on the HomePod, for example. We also learn that the application is not available in China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and Taiwan. It is difficult to know at this stage whether some of these countries will be served later or not.
On the software side, finally, Android 9 (or later) is required to install the application, which could ensure a good user base: even an “old” Android smartphone is indeed able to take advantage of it.
Do you use Google News (News in France)? You can follow your favorite media. Follow Frandroid on Google News (and Numerama).