Streaming services: classical Music, any Primephonic/Apple updates, other?

[JanesJr1]

For seveal years I have a prime subscription to Qobuz and I am very content with the offer and the performance. As far as I encounter the classical choice is complete, with the restriction that albums that came out before 2014/2015 (around the commercial start of Qobuz) and did not had a new release are sometimes missing. What I do mis is a enhanced search window, to make a faster and more accurate selection. No Tidal; don't believe in MQA.

I will just mention that it is very, very rarely that I can't find a release on Idagio. It takes a minute to get used to their search function, but it works well and they have a broad selection of classical labels.

 

[stringham]

Deezer has great availability for classical. Searching is fine, as long as you have some idea of what you're looking for (and I say this as someone who's obsessive about metadata in JRiver). I have the lossless family plan, which doesn't seem to be available everywhere, but I think it's a great deal.

 

[bevok]

Its here on 28 March (was just thinking about old Primephonic this morning as I was looking for a 9th Symphony recording and wondering what happened to all their content)! Coincidentally perhaps its the same day Atmos is expected to come to Sonos through Apple Music.

 

[FrantzM]

Its here on 28 March (was just thinking about old Primephonic this morning as I was looking for a 9th Symphony recording and wondering what happened to all their content)! Coincidentally perhaps its the same day Atmos is expected to come to Sonos through Apple Music.

View attachment 270533

At last...
I am however leery of Apple "new" anything. I am dabbling in Home Automation but Homekit breaks your automations on a regular basis... You cringe once you update your i-phone or iPad or ...
And I am no fan of Apple Music' interface...

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Peace.

 

[theREALdotnet]

Its here on 28 March

Nice find! And it does appear to have its own app:

Weirdly, only for iPhone. I hope iPad and Mac apps will follow soon.

 

[bevok]

Nice find! And it does appear to have its own app:

View attachment 270547

Weirdly, only for iPhone. I hope iPad and Mac apps will follow soon.

Yeah I’m sure they will. It does seem to be built on the bones of the Apple Music app which is understandable for cost reasons but I like the “composer and work” focus on the screenshots and the notes.

 

[Liya]

I wonder if they have changed their mind about booklets.
As far as I know Qobuz is the only streaming service which occasionally include booklets with classical releases.

 

[mkt]

I wonder if they have changed their mind about booklets.
As far as I know Qobuz is the only streaming service which occasionally include booklets with classical releases.

The new presto one https://www.prestomusic.com/classic...esto-musics-streaming-service-is-finally-here says "Over 70,000 booklets"

 

[stringham]

The new presto one https://www.prestomusic.com/classic...esto-musics-streaming-service-is-finally-here says "Over 70,000 booklets"

I just saw that last night as I was about to buy a download from Presto. I wonder how much they'll cannibalize their own sales.

 

[Keith_W]

Weirdly, only for iPhone. I hope iPad and Mac apps will follow soon.

How is that weird. It totally fits in with Apple's modus operandi. I suppose it would be weird if they made apps for Windows and Android with the same functionality. This is why I don't touch Apple products with a bargepole.

 

[theREALdotnet]

How is that weird. It totally fits in with Apple's modus operandi.

Really? The Music app is available on all three platforms (and then some).

This is why I don't touch Apple products with a bargepole.

Would you have touched Primephonic? It also didn’t have iPad or Mac apps.

 

[FeelinNoPain]

My Qobuz annual subscription runs out soon, so it's time to start looking for alternatives. Main interest is classical music, but I do enjoy having access to jazz and a few other stray items. I'm not interested in playlist-based services: I want to search and choose my own choices. I'm looking for Redbook (CD) standard: higher res is fine but not needed.

1. Idagio still is around, but is strictly classical. Still might consider that: any Idagio users out there who can comment?
2. Apple Classical Music (the old Primephonic), hasn't shown up yet: any word on when (I've seen rumors revolving around the Apple developers conference in June, but....) Apparently that will include the classical part but also access to the entire catalog of other genres.
3. Last time I looked (about 2 years ago), Tidal and Amazon interfaces were awful for classical, Tidal because it was all about Jay-Z or whomever and I never could even find classical stuff; Amazon because their search function was incredibly primitive for what is supposed to be a tech company. Improvements recently in either?

One other question: when Apply Classical does come along, how does one get the digital stream to one's DAC? All the other services can be accessed using a music server (Bluesound Node, Raspberry Pi, etc.) but Apple plays in its own universe. I wouldn't mind buying an iPad but the vision of running a cable from it to my DAC isn't too appealing! :^)

Thanks all....

There’s a new classical and jazz streaming service just launched by Presto, the British classical/jazz record & downloads store.

Post in thread 'Apple Music Classical app arriving March 28'
https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...ical-app-arriving-march-28.42781/post-1514165

 

[mkt]

The new presto one https://www.prestomusic.com/classic...esto-musics-streaming-service-is-finally-here says "Over 70,000 booklets"

And it seems that you can access booklets in the app (and browser) with the free plan

 

[bevok]

Well its here, overall I'm impressed. Search is great, they've brought the primephonic browse by work, composer, instrument functionality along with all the great composer and work writeups. Your classical library from Apple Music along with classical listening history automatically comes across (and is kept up to date). This is quite handy as the app is iOS only with no Carplay yet so I can open Apple Music in carplay and carry on listening.
Lots of exclusive recordings to launch the service, and the great "Story of Classical" series has come across from Primephonic. There are quite a few track by tracks from artists taking you through albums too which is neat, along with artist curated playlists (e.g. Yo-Yo Ma).
Audio quality - playback uses the Apple Music engine so Atmos, hires lossless etc works the same way along with Airplay.
The metadata is all solid from what I can see thus far.
Hopefully apps for other platforms (iPad, Android, Windows/web app, Carplay, Sonos) follow quickly. I remain hopeful of "Airplay 3" to allow optional lossless, hires and Atmos casting with proper handoff ala Tidal Connect, but an Apple TV is a good proxy for now.

 

[FrantzM]

I don’t see it yet in my eastern daylight side . Just cancelled Adagio.

Peace.

 

[LuvTheMusic]

Well its here, overall I'm impressed. Search is great, they've brought the primephonic browse by work, composer, instrument functionality along with all the great composer and work writeups. Your classical library from Apple Music along with classical listening history automatically comes across (and is kept up to date). This is quite handy as the app is iOS only with no Carplay yet so I can open Apple Music in carplay and carry on listening.
Lots of exclusive recordings to launch the service, and the great "Story of Classical" series has come across from Primephonic. There are quite a few track by tracks from artists taking you through albums too which is neat, along with artist curated playlists (e.g. Yo-Yo Ma).
Audio quality - playback uses the Apple Music engine so Atmos, hires lossless etc works the same way along with Airplay.
The metadata is all solid from what I can see thus far.
Hopefully apps for other platforms (iPad, Android, Windows/web app, Carplay, Sonos) follow quickly. I remain hopeful of "Airplay 3" to allow optional lossless, hires and Atmos casting with proper handoff ala Tidal Connect, but an Apple TV is a good proxy for now.

This sounds tempting! But as I'm not (yet) in the Apple ecosystem, let me ask a noob question: assuing that I had an iPhone, which I was considering for other reasons anyway, or an iPad (assuming that the app soon works on that), I could then run the app on the phone/pad and the digital stream losslessly to an Airplay-capable device -- is that correct? That latter device would be something connected to my main audio system.

BTW, I must say that an iPad would be more attractive because of all that real estate to see search results, booklets, etc. Surely that won't be long in coming....

 

[bevok]

Yes should be a good experience on iPad! I'm sure the booklets etc will come as its a much sought after feature and was in Primephonic.
Airplay isn't a supported way to listen to lossless on Apple Music - the best/only official solution is an Apple TV as your streamer (or a Homepod or two if you didn't have an audio system). That said, if your device is Airplay 1 it will in fact stream in CD quality, its just not listed on the Apple Music support page.
My guess is that there is a whole new generation of Airplay coming that will support Spatial audio and maybe hires. Because of the multiroom support in Airplay 2 there are some hurdles to a good quality experience using hires/lossless for people who don't have a good wireless network.
I have to say the experience using the Apple TV is very good especially if you use multichannel via an AV receiver. Obviously a traditional stereo is little harder as you'd need something like this https://www.amazon.com/AuviPal-Extr...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl. I wasn't that keen on having the TV on etc when listening to music but I quite like it now, album art, lyrics etc.

 

[LuvTheMusic]

Yes should be a good experience on iPad! I'm sure the booklets etc will come as its a much sought after feature and was in Primephonic.
Airplay isn't a supported way to listen to lossless on Apple Music - the best/only official solution is an Apple TV as your streamer (or a Homepod or two if you didn't have an audio system). That said, if your device is Airplay 1 it will in fact stream in CD quality, its just not listed on the Apple Music support page.
My guess is that there is a whole new generation of Airplay coming that will support Spatial audio and maybe hires. Because of the multiroom support in Airplay 2 there are some hurdles to a good quality experience using hires/lossless for people who don't have a good wireless network.
I have to say the experience using the Apple TV is very good especially if you use multichannel via an AV receiver. Obviously a traditional stereo is little harder as you'd need something like this https://www.amazon.com/AuviPal-Extr...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl. I wasn't that keen on having the TV on etc when listening to music but I quite like it now, album art, lyrics etc.

@bevok , thanks for the clarification. I can't see an Apple TV in my future, but will hope for an updated solution soon from Apple. For now, I guess that I'll stick with one of the other streaming solutions.

 

[mSpot]

Lots of exclusive recordings to launch the service

This is the feature that interests me the most. What is the nature of these recordings? Live concert performances that haven't been released previously?

I wasn't a Primephonic subscriber. What has changed from the Primephonic app?

 

[bevok]

This is the feature that interests me the most. What is the nature of these recordings? Live concert performances that haven't been released previously?

I wasn't a Primephonic subscriber. What has changed from the Primephonic app?

There is a variety, some live (e.g. Vienna Philharmonic - Mahler's 9th

), other ones that haven't been released to streaming e.g. from Berlin Philharmonic (

also available on Berlin Phi's own site for purchase), Ivan Fischer conducting Mozart Symphony 34 (

). Around 20 albums (I'm sure they'll be released to other platforms in time but perhaps others will come).

From what I can see the playlists, content, search and browsing layout have been brought across from Primephonic but rendered within an app that shares its ancestry with Apple Music and uses the same playback engine. Missing thus far are the podcasts and booklets (and support on other platforms than iPhone).

One other little thing I like is the multiline track title on the Now Playing screen, I always found it frustrating with long piece names having to wait for it to scroll across in Apple Music/Tidal/Qobuz.