Apple Classical Music launching

If I were an Apple user I’d probably give it a try. I gotta say, though, that this Microsoft guy has one heck of a good time streaming classical via Qobuz and Idagio. As a matter of fact, Idagio’s selection is vast & addictive enough for this wall-of-classical-records guy to now pretty much just consider my LPs as wall treatment. It’s only with opera where the streaming services come up thin. Soundwise, the streaming services are pretty competitive with my analogue rig, too.

For better or worse, I also quit Tidal before they decided to expand their previously who-cares classical selection.

As long as Valentina Lisitsa will be there streamed, I'm in!

I use Apple Music on Android devices and I mainly listen to Classical

I pre ordered the App it starts March 28

@czarivey  Valentina Lisitsa will be there. Her music is already on Apple Music. 

>> "catering to classical music lovers who, like me, are frustrated with the “song” based digital services, where composition’s movements are treated as individual tracks, rather than as part of a larger whole..."

I'm not sure what they are talking about. I have a Qobuz subscription and have zero problem finding, selecting, and playing whole classical albums. 

I wonder if this refers more to tagging issues.  I know there have been complaints about the inadequacy of tagging one's own collection due to the more common issues of composer v. orchestra v. conductor v. individual performers and the naming of individual movements within a piece.  But that is an issue with tagging and has nothing to do with how streaming services operate.  If Apple plans on completely redoing tagging standards, there are going to be a whole lot of streaming software programs that won't be working right.

@mlsstl all I want is playlists where I can include entire albums but I’m interested to see what that means too. 

Current Qobuz user and I just pre-ordered Apple Music for this.

I think a lot of the appeal of a dedicated Classical music service is discovery or context when listening/searching.  For instance, if I want to listen to and investigate a Shostakovich piano trio, I'd like to be able to see all the versions available and some background on each.  Also, some like to focus on a conductor or a particular symphony orchestra or a lead musician rather than the composer of a work.  There are also catalog numbers.  It's just a different environment.

I have the free Idagio account but never use it.  Qobuz hasn't been terrible re: classical but the onus is on the end user to really know what they are searching for.

I am concerned that the streaming quality of the Apple Music plan won't be great or that I'll have trouble integrating it into my system.

JS

@kiwiscott -- I use Qobuz through LMS (Logitech Media Server) and am able to easily build playlists that include albums without having to add track by track.  It also integrates my local collection along with Qobuz material.

And, while I don't build many playlists on Qobuz directly, I was also able to do this through a web broswer at play.qobuz.com.   I just experimented and had no problem quickly starting a Qobuz playlist and added several complete albums with just a few clicks.  LMS can also use these playlists.

Not sure what problem you are having.

Qobuz was relatively good, compared to other services, about Classical.  I dropped them for other reasons.  Apple has been okay but definitely more of a pop music mentality in terms of Artist vs Composer, whole works vs. songs, etc.  I can get where I want on Apple but it takes more effort.  Apple catalog is at least as broad, possibly broader as I found a few albums there that I couldn’t find on Qobuz.  I suspect that Apple’s big innovation will be an improved search engine with essentially the same catalog 

@mlsstl all I want is to be able to put a list of albums together for specific purposes like ‘Late Night Listening’, ‘dinner with friends’ etc. I would like to be able to view those albums by ‘purpose’ and then play just that album. 
 

adding an album to a playlist is easy but I really want to be able to say ‘play this album’. Playing the album is easy but organizing my custom list of albums isn’t right now. 

@kiwiscott -- still not sure what you are asking for other than perhaps a software program that can read what mood you're in.  In a way, isn't that what a playlist is?  A preselected collection of these albums for background music when you have friends over for dinner, or those albums when you want a late night session?

To be honest, I don't use playlists all that much since what I'm interested in at any particular moment varies so widely. As such, I use Favorites on Qobuz a lot more than Playlists.