It’s long been rumored that Apple is working on an app specifically for classical music. Ever since the company bought up Primephonic in 2021, it has seemed inevitable that Apple Music Classical would become a thing – in fact, just last year we wrote that such a service should be rolled into Apple One.
According to code discovered in the latest betas, that time is almost here, with the service expected to launch as a standalone app rather than a part of the existing Music app.
iOS 16.4’s second developer-only beta revealed the clues: though Apple Music Classical isn’t available to test just yet, the MusicKit framework has added several references to the service and how it will work. That usually means a full public release is imminent.
Apple Music is complicated enough, and classical is best presented and experienced in a different way from other music. A separate app that works with Apple Music and Apple One subscriptions seems likely. Messaging has been uncovered in the beta stating “To listen in Apple Music Classical, you’ll need to install Apple Music,” which seems to corroborate this theory.
However, it’s still unclear if Apple will include Classical as part of existing Apple Music subscriptions, or whether it will incur an additional cost.
Keep an eye out for our full report on iOS 16.4 when it releases to the public. It will almost certainly be here later this month.