Nothing about the Primephonic sale is open, fair or classical friendly

The classical streaming service Primephonic will be taken down by its new owners, Apple Inc., a week from today.

People who bought a Primephonic subscription will be given six months free access to Apple, which is not what they wanted. Many tell us they feel let down by the supposedly classical-friendly service.

Its Dutch co-founder Thomas Steffens and major shareholder Gordon Getty have offered neither regret nor reassurance.

Nobody is saying how much money changed hands, or what Steffens and Getty gained personally from the Apple deal.

Apple Music promises to launch a dedicated classical music app next year based on Primephonic’s classical user interface and ‘with more added features’. Let’s see. Apple has never previously bothered with classical music and many of its prior purchases have just vanished into the corportation’s bottomless maw.

Nothing about this deal is transparent, fair or consumer friendly. Announced over a holday weekend, it was timed to escape scrutiny. In the circumstances, we can have little confidence in the future of classical music on Apple.

There remains one other classical streaming service, Idagio. It should do well in the months and years ahead.