A dissenting industry voice on the Apple Classical app
NewsLukas Krohn-Grimberghe, founder of the failed classical streaming service Grammofy, finds fault with the business model of the new Apple streaming service.
He says: ‘From a music licensing standpoint nothing changes. Not for Apple, not for artists and rights holders. Revenue is still pooled with all of Apple Music’s revenue and then prorated based on the same model that has dominated the industry for 10+ years.’
He adds: ‘as long as Apple is only converting users of its competitors, the overall money in the pot remains equal and artists will receive exactly the same payouts. The only way artists might benefit from this new app financially is if the ratio of classical music listening to listening of other genres is significantly altered – which I would think is very unlikely – or if a huge number of classical music listeners that have not yet been music streaming subscribers before will now purchase an Apple Music subscription.’
Read further analysis on mBW here.
Lukas is presently Director Product & Editorial Strategy at WQXR.
Probably true but for listeners/viewers it may enhance their experience.
One criticism I have heard is that it is track based rather than whole work based.
On the Apple Music I have experience both. I have listened to whole albums of naive’s fantastic Vivaldi series but in some modes I have found it changes what is being played after every track.
What have other readers experienced?
Can somebody who has tried both tell us if Apple is better than Idagio? Thank you!
Apple Classical is the app equivalent of Classic FM. Who needs it?
Or bbcRadio 3 for that matter. I would suggest dear old Qobuz which I never cease to recommend, especially if one is streaming classical listening through an upmarket hifi stereo system.
I predict the new app will eventually be decommissioned, probably sooner than later, for lack of interest. I have it and have used it insignificantly little for it seems redundant with their own other Music app. I already have all I need in that app.
I need the classical app.
One Platform To Rule Them All – this is surely Apple’s masterplan and I don’t remember the artists themselves being named beneficiaries … Apple want to hoover up existing classical listeners from Spotify, Qobuz, Tidal et al but this will take time if it happens at all as the majority won’t jump ship over night – punters such as myself (especially audiophiles) will need to see proven benefits of moving and not just a few exclusive live recordings. Of course Apple aren’t naive enough to believe there’s going to be an explosion of interest in classical music just because their brand now has a look in.
If you have not done so previously, please investigate and then write a piece about IDAGIO, the subscription classical music streaming service that was created by musicians. IDAGIO strongly advocated by Thomas Hampson. My understanding is that IDAGIO uses a fair artists payout system unlike Spotify, Apple, and the rest.
The app is not perfect by any means, and will no doubt be finessed over time, but one must concede that finally having a search function on a major platform that works for classical music, with its huge taxonomy challenges, is transformative. I also think they’ve made a really good stab at curating content for people less familiar with the landscape. While I agree entirely about Apple’s business model not being fair to classical artists, from the point of view of the consumer it’s a great development and one which the specialist platforms will struggle to compete against. Apple has the money to throw at this and won’t be expecting to make money out of what remains a niche area. It’s more likely that they want to attract a certain demographic to their ecosystem. That’s not a criticism and it works for me.