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> Primephonic is no longer available for new subscribers and will be taken offline beginning September 7. Apple Music plans to launch a dedicated classical musi

by 015a 5y ago

> Primephonic is no longer available for new subscribers and will be taken offline beginning September 7. Apple Music plans to launch a dedicated classical music app next year combining Primephonic’s classical user interface that fans have grown to love with more added features. In the meantime, current Primephonic subscribers will receive six months of Apple Music for free, providing access to hundreds of thousands of classical albums, all in Lossless and high-resolution audio, as well as hundreds of classical albums in Apple Music’s Spatial Audio, with new albums added regularly. This is utter insanity. I understand acquiring, and "sunsetting" the acquisition when it makes sense, blocking new user signups, and heck I'd even say its pretty cool that they're planning on releasing a totally separate experience for Apple Music classical listeners. But why shut down Primephonic before this new experience is ready? It just pisses off the already niche and hesitant customer-base you've announced you're trying to court!

yunohn 5y ago
Agreed, this is crazy. What are users of Primephone supposed to do for the next 6 months? Listen to hip-hop? And that’s just a tentative timeline.
- azinman2 5y ago
  They gave a 6 month free subscription to Apple Music. I was one of the Primephonic subscribers. I’m really bummed about this as I don’t like Apple Music (and I even work for Apple!), prefer Spotify for “regular” music, and want my classical to have a proper focus and giant catalog. The major streamers just are so basic when it comes to classical, in selection, discovery, playlists, etc. I don’t want pop classical, I want the good obscure stuff. Sad day as a user… Update: I didn’t see the part where there’s going to be a new dedicated app. That makes me feel better in the long run. That wasn’t so clear from the email that Primephonic sent this morning.
  - yunohn 5y ago
    Given the delay on basic and simple features between WWDC and iOS releases; I find it hard to believe they’ll launch a completely new music experience app in 6 months.
    - kemayo 5y ago
      It seems very plausible that it'd be the Primophonic app, just rebranded into looking first-party Apple. Just like what happened with Workflow becoming Shortcuts a few years ago.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  It seems really stupid as they will lose those customers and some will refuse to come back on principal based on being treated like chattel by Apple.
ttul 5y ago
I just signed up and started listening, for free, no problem. So I don't think new signups are off the table. At least, they weren't two hours ago.
- yunohn 5y ago
  The website says “will be taken offline beginning September 7”, so I guess you can enjoy your 1 week free run?
satya71 5y ago
Speculating here, but liability, non-alignment of privacy policies, change of focus for team. Many reasons.
- judge2020 5y ago
  Exactly. If you gave people hope that it'd stick around for an indefinite amount of time you'd just have more discourse about "Apple could shut it down any day now" and you'd slowly dwindle subscribers anyways.
rurp 5y ago
This reminds me a lot of Dark Sky from a year or two ago. It was my partner's favorite weather app... until Apple bought the company and promptly announced they were killing it.
- frutiger 5y ago
  Unlike Primephonic, Dark Sky is still a functioning website and app to this day. I presume it will only be sunset (ha!) after iOS 15 and Monterey reach general release.
- 333c 5y ago
  They're killing Dark Sky? It still works on my devices.
  - rurp 5y ago
    I just tried searching it by name in the Play store and it did not come up. Apple might have backpedaled on the deprecation timeline for existing users but the initial announcement was basically telling Android users to get lost, so we switched to other apps shortly after.
    - Infinitesimus 5y ago
      Cached Google version https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VDKwNe2horwJ:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details%3Fid%3Dcom.primephonic.app%26hl%3Den_US%26gl%3DUS+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VDKwNe.... Looks like it was removed from the play store sometime after yesterday evening.
      - zamalek 5y ago
        Everyone's fussing about the walling off of Primephonic, so I guess they can safely kill off Dark Sky now that it's not newsworthy?

by 015a 5y ago

yunohn 5y ago

Agreed, this is crazy. What are users of Primephone supposed to do for the next 6 months? Listen to hip-hop? And that’s just a tentative timeline.

azinman2 5y ago
They gave a 6 month free subscription to Apple Music. I was one of the Primephonic subscribers. I’m really bummed about this as I don’t like Apple Music (and I even work for Apple!), prefer Spotify for “regular” music, and want my classical to have a proper focus and giant catalog. The major streamers just are so basic when it comes to classical, in selection, discovery, playlists, etc. I don’t want pop classical, I want the good obscure stuff. Sad day as a user… Update: I didn’t see the part where there’s going to be a new dedicated app. That makes me feel better in the long run. That wasn’t so clear from the email that Primephonic sent this morning.
- yunohn 5y ago
  Given the delay on basic and simple features between WWDC and iOS releases; I find it hard to believe they’ll launch a completely new music experience app in 6 months.
  - kemayo 5y ago
    It seems very plausible that it'd be the Primophonic app, just rebranded into looking first-party Apple. Just like what happened with Workflow becoming Shortcuts a few years ago.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
stjohnswarts 5y ago
It seems really stupid as they will lose those customers and some will refuse to come back on principal based on being treated like chattel by Apple.

ttul 5y ago

I just signed up and started listening, for free, no problem. So I don't think new signups are off the table. At least, they weren't two hours ago.

yunohn 5y ago
The website says “will be taken offline beginning September 7”, so I guess you can enjoy your 1 week free run?

satya71 5y ago

Speculating here, but liability, non-alignment of privacy policies, change of focus for team. Many reasons.

judge2020 5y ago
Exactly. If you gave people hope that it'd stick around for an indefinite amount of time you'd just have more discourse about "Apple could shut it down any day now" and you'd slowly dwindle subscribers anyways.

rurp 5y ago

This reminds me a lot of Dark Sky from a year or two ago. It was my partner's favorite weather app... until Apple bought the company and promptly announced they were killing it.

frutiger 5y ago
Unlike Primephonic, Dark Sky is still a functioning website and app to this day. I presume it will only be sunset (ha!) after iOS 15 and Monterey reach general release.
333c 5y ago
They're killing Dark Sky? It still works on my devices.
- rurp 5y ago
  I just tried searching it by name in the Play store and it did not come up. Apple might have backpedaled on the deprecation timeline for existing users but the initial announcement was basically telling Android users to get lost, so we switched to other apps shortly after.
  - Infinitesimus 5y ago
    Cached Google version https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VDKwNe2horwJ:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details%3Fid%3Dcom.primephonic.app%26hl%3Den_US%26gl%3DUS+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VDKwNe.... Looks like it was removed from the play store sometime after yesterday evening.
    - zamalek 5y ago
      Everyone's fussing about the walling off of Primephonic, so I guess they can safely kill off Dark Sky now that it's not newsworthy?