Apple’s rumored Classical subscription service could be the highlight of WWDC 2022 – and here’s why.
We know WWDC 2022 is scheduled for early June. This is Apple’s annual software conference where we’re expecting iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, and… Apple Classical? What’s that? Well, Apple Classical is a rumored streaming service, like its current Apple Music, that the tech giant is said to be working on, that’d focus on classical music instead of popular music. After its August 2021 purchase of Primephonic, another big classical streaming service, it became clear that Apple had eyes on the classical-music prize. That fact became even clearer when lines of code in an Apple Music beta — then later code in an iOS 15.5 beta — referred to an ”Apple Classical.” Those latter references also suggest that Apple Classical could launch soon. The June date for WWDC makes perfect sense for a debut, though we’d expect an actual release later in the year. But lots of people might be wondering,”what’s the point in a classical music streaming service? Aren’t all the classics already on Spotify and Apple Music?” That’s certainly true, but for classical aficionados, the streaming services that already exist are, quite frankly, rubbish. Current streaming services are built for pop music — you’ve got albums full of songs attributed to one artist. But classical music works in a completely different way, so requires a different form of organization. For example, most of you reading this probably know the name, “Ride of the Valkyries,” or would at least recognize its distinctive melody from Apocalypse Now, the Blues Brothers, Valkyrie, Watchmen, Norbit,8 1/2, or one of the million other movies that it’s used in. If this were a pop song, you’d find the streaming service profile for Richard Wagner, scroll down to whichever of his albums contains the song, and click play. But that’s not how this 1854 piece actually sits within Wagner’s repertoire. Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four dramatic operas written by Wagner, commonly referred to as the Ring Cycle. The fourth, Die Walküre, is about four hours long, and the popular segment that we’re referring to falls at the beginning of the third and final act — it’s not called, “Ride of the Valkyries” in the opera though, but “Hojotoho! Heiaha!” and the Ride segment is only the first few minutes of that 8-minute piece. That’s confusing enough for someone who doesn’t have an entire classical music dictionary in their head — it’s almost impossible to find the piece in its Ring Cycle context without just searching, “The Ride of the Valkyries” and finding recordings that are just of the piece. But the way Spotify organizes its music (the app chosen due to it being the go-to for this writer) makes it even more confusing. If this were a pop song, you’d find the streaming service profile for Richard Wagner, scroll down to whichever of his albums contains the song, and click play. But that’s not how this 1854 piece actually sits within Wagner’s repertoire.—Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four dramatic operas written by Wagner, commonly referred to as the Ring Cycle. The fourth, Die Walküre, is about four hours long, and the popular segment that we’re referring to falls at the beginning of the third and final act it’s not called “Ride of the Valkyries” in the opera though, but “Hojotoho! Heiaha!”, and the Ride segment is only the first few minutes of that 8-minute piece. Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four dramatic operas written by Wagner, commonly referred to as the Ring Cycle. The fourth, Die Walküre, is about four hours long, and the popular segment— that we’re referring to falls at the beginning of the third and final act it’s not called “Ride of the Valkyries” in the opera though, but “Hojotoho! Heiaha!”, and the Ride segment is only the first few minutes of that 8-minute piece.ing of the third and final act it’s not called “Ride of the Valkyries” in the opera though, but “Hojotoho! Heiaha!”, and the Ride segment is only the first few minutes of that 8-minute piece. If this were a pop song, you’d find the streaming service profile for Richard Wagner, scroll down to whichever of his albums contains the song, and click play. But that’s not how this 1854 piece actually sits within Wagner’s repertoire. Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four dramatic operas written by Wagner, commonly referred to as the Ring Cycle. The fourth, Die Walküre, is about four hours long, and the popular segment that we’re referring to falls at the beginning of the third and final act — it’s not called, “Ride of the Valkyries” in the opera though, but “Hojotoho! Heiaha!” and the Ride segment is only the first few minutes of that 8-minute piece.
