You might be familiar with Apple Music, but the company also has another app just for classical music fans – and now it’s available on all the best iPads. Previously, you could only download it on an iPhone, limiting its reach.
In an App Store listing, Apple says the appropriately named Apple Music Classical has been “designed specially for iPad.” That means its design makes proper use of the larger screen you get on an iPad compared to an iPhone, and there’s also a “specialized search built for classical music.”
Apple Music Classical differs from the regular Apple Music service in a number of ways. For one thing, Apple points out that there are often hundreds of recordings of popular songs, frequently with very long titles. That wouldn’t work very well in the regular Apple Music app, but Apple Music Classical has been designed to display this information properly and make browsing it much easier.
As well as that, Apple promotes its Apple Music Classical app by claiming it contains the world’s largest classical music catalog, with over five million tracks and 700 curated playlists across a variety of composers, periods and themes. There is also exclusive artwork commissioned from a range of artists.
A few limitations
Access to Apple Music Classical is included with an Apple Music subscription (although you need to download a separate app for it), but until now you’ve only been able to use it on an iPhone. Despite today’s update bringing the service to the iPad, it’s still not available if you’re using a Mac.
There are also a few limitations compared to what you might be used to in the best music-streaming services. For instance, you can’t download tracks, nor can you shuffle or queue them. Instead, you have to listen to them in the order they are presented.
On the plus side, many tracks in Apple Music Classical are available in high resolution (up to 24-bit/192kHz) for improved audio. Just be aware that to get that kind of output, you’ll need a pair of wired headphones or speakers and one of the best digital-to-analog converters (DACs).
Still, if you’re a fan of classical music and want to start listening on your iPad, this latest update from Apple will be welcome. Now it’s just Mac users left waiting for access to the service.
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