Apple Classical Music launching

>> "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