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Beyond pricing, what's their strategy here trying to unbundle music? Are they going to release a different music app for every genre? If it's just a classical a

Beyond pricing, what's their strategy here trying to unbundle music? Are they going to release a different music app for every genre? If it's just a classical app, does that mean I now have to use two apps to switch between music based on genre? What benefit is there other than slightly better UX which presumably could be bundled in an existing app.

netrus 4y ago
Wildly different meta data and needs for search. With classical music, it's a standard use case to search music composed by X. For most other genres, no one ever searches for a composer. On the other hand, there will hundreds of performances of the same piece, and listeners will want to scroll though them, instead of just seeing the 1-3 most famous renditions of a song. Or you want songs from a specific conductor or with a specific solist. All of this makes classical music very distinct, while search pattern for most other genres are kind of similar.
herodotus 4y ago
> What benefit is there other than slightly better UX The way people (like me) listen to classical music is different from the way they listen to other kinds of music. For example, I might want to listen to Beethoven's String Quartet No. 12. This has four movements, and I want the player to play from movement 1 through movement 4 once I touch the play button. This is very different from wanting to play (say) Price Tag by Jessie J which is one track. Furthermore, the meta data standards for music do not work that well for classical music. It requires some thoughtful manipulation to present the meta data correctly for this genre. For example, if you search for Mozart's Don Giovanni on Apple Music, and you are looking for a particular track, you may see something like this: "1. Mozart, Don Giovanni Act ....." "2. Mozart, Don Giovanni Act ....." "3. Mozart, Don Giovanni Act ....." Now the "Track Title" meta data field for track 2 probably has something like this: "2. Mozart, Don Giovanni Act 1: Notte e giorno faticar" If the programmers of Apple Music had read the spec carefully, they would have learned that the part of the track title after the colon is the actual track title, so they should show that first. There are other issues with the meta data, but I tried the Apple Classical music player last night, and it is good. Finally a music player that works for me, not against me.
- pwinnski 4y ago
  I decided to check this out. I searched for "Don giovanni" and my first match was under "Works", telling me that "Don Giovanni" by W. A. Mozart (little pic of him), K. 527, is available in 1,182 tracks. Second match, amusingly, was "Don Juan" by "C. W. Gluck," Wq. 52, available in 17 tracks. Choosing Don Giovanni, I get a link to see more by Wolgang Amadeus Mozart, and a detailed description of Don Giovanni, K. 527, KV527. There's an Editor's Choice recording by Teodor Currentzis from 2016 (79 tracks, 2 hr 50 min), or five (with See All) Popular Recordings from 1960, 1986, 1991, 1960 again, and 1966, ranging from 2 hr 38 min (Herbert von Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic) to 3 hr (Philharmonia Orchestra). I'll choose the Editor's Choice. Album art up top, I see (in dim gray) "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart," (in large white type) "Don Giovanni, K. 527," and (in gray, but larger than the composer) "Teodor Currentzis," along with tiny type tell me that this was released in 2016 and is in Hi-Res Lossless. Then a large Play button, no Shuffle button as the normal Music app has. The tracks are "Ouvertura" (5:12), Notte e giorno faticar (No. 1, Introduzione: Leporello) (1:30), Non sperar... you know what? You get the idea. The metadata is presented perfectly. Last night I was listening to Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 by the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle conducting, and it was presented perfectly as well.[0] And it sounded wonderful! 0. https://i.imgur.com/XEZn2My.jpg https://i.imgur.com/XEZn2My.jpg
- dexterdog 4y ago
  > The way people (like me) listen to classical music is different from the way they listen to other kinds of music. For example, I might want to listen to Beethoven's String Quartet No. 12. This has four movements, and I want the player to play from movement 1 through movement 4 once I touch the play button. This is very different from wanting to play (say) Price Tag by Jessie J which is one track. How is this any different from listening to an album or any other logical grouping of tracks with an order?
  - squeaky-clean 4y ago
    It's more than a track but less than an album. If I just want to play Vivaldi's "Summer" that's typically done as 3 tracks for the 1 song. But the album it is on will almost always be the full 4 seasons suite, consisting of 4 songs / 12 movements (tracks). I can also see all the hundreds of different recordings of just those 3 movements in Summer. Sure you could just go to the album and play track 4, and pause when track 6 finishes. But this makes that a little easier to play and easier to add to playlists and such. There's also all the other metadata differences. Maybe I really like this composer, but apple music has it listed under the performing orchestra. Maybe I really like this conductor. This breaks all those out into different options.
squeaky-clean 4y ago
You can still listen to classical in the regular music app, all of these tracks and albums are in the main app. But if you find a recording you really like and want to check out more stuff by that composer or the conductor, or the performers... Well conventional streaming app UI and search kind of sucks for that. For example one of my most played artists on Apple music is "Various Artists" ;p

netrus 4y ago

Wildly different meta data and needs for search. With classical music, it's a standard use case to search music composed by X. For most other genres, no one ever searches for a composer. On the other hand, there will hundreds of performances of the same piece, and listeners will want to scroll though them, instead of just seeing the 1-3 most famous renditions of a song. Or you want songs from a specific conductor or with a specific solist. All of this makes classical music very distinct, while search pattern for most other genres are kind of similar.

herodotus 4y ago

> What benefit is there other than slightly better UX The way people (like me) listen to classical music is different from the way they listen to other kinds of music. For example, I might want to listen to Beethoven's String Quartet No. 12. This has four movements, and I want the player to play from movement 1 through movement 4 once I touch the play button. This is very different from wanting to play (say) Price Tag by Jessie J which is one track. Furthermore, the meta data standards for music do not work that well for classical music. It requires some thoughtful manipulation to present the meta data correctly for this genre. For example, if you search for Mozart's Don Giovanni on Apple Music, and you are looking for a particular track, you may see something like this: "1. Mozart, Don Giovanni Act ....." "2. Mozart, Don Giovanni Act ....." "3. Mozart, Don Giovanni Act ....." Now the "Track Title" meta data field for track 2 probably has something like this: "2. Mozart, Don Giovanni Act 1: Notte e giorno faticar" If the programmers of Apple Music had read the spec carefully, they would have learned that the part of the track title after the colon is the actual track title, so they should show that first. There are other issues with the meta data, but I tried the Apple Classical music player last night, and it is good. Finally a music player that works for me, not against me.

pwinnski 4y ago
I decided to check this out. I searched for "Don giovanni" and my first match was under "Works", telling me that "Don Giovanni" by W. A. Mozart (little pic of him), K. 527, is available in 1,182 tracks. Second match, amusingly, was "Don Juan" by "C. W. Gluck," Wq. 52, available in 17 tracks. Choosing Don Giovanni, I get a link to see more by Wolgang Amadeus Mozart, and a detailed description of Don Giovanni, K. 527, KV527. There's an Editor's Choice recording by Teodor Currentzis from 2016 (79 tracks, 2 hr 50 min), or five (with See All) Popular Recordings from 1960, 1986, 1991, 1960 again, and 1966, ranging from 2 hr 38 min (Herbert von Karajan, Vienna Philharmonic) to 3 hr (Philharmonia Orchestra). I'll choose the Editor's Choice. Album art up top, I see (in dim gray) "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart," (in large white type) "Don Giovanni, K. 527," and (in gray, but larger than the composer) "Teodor Currentzis," along with tiny type tell me that this was released in 2016 and is in Hi-Res Lossless. Then a large Play button, no Shuffle button as the normal Music app has. The tracks are "Ouvertura" (5:12), Notte e giorno faticar (No. 1, Introduzione: Leporello) (1:30), Non sperar... you know what? You get the idea. The metadata is presented perfectly. Last night I was listening to Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 by the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle conducting, and it was presented perfectly as well.[0] And it sounded wonderful! 0. https://i.imgur.com/XEZn2My.jpg https://i.imgur.com/XEZn2My.jpg
dexterdog 4y ago
> The way people (like me) listen to classical music is different from the way they listen to other kinds of music. For example, I might want to listen to Beethoven's String Quartet No. 12. This has four movements, and I want the player to play from movement 1 through movement 4 once I touch the play button. This is very different from wanting to play (say) Price Tag by Jessie J which is one track. How is this any different from listening to an album or any other logical grouping of tracks with an order?
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  It's more than a track but less than an album. If I just want to play Vivaldi's "Summer" that's typically done as 3 tracks for the 1 song. But the album it is on will almost always be the full 4 seasons suite, consisting of 4 songs / 12 movements (tracks). I can also see all the hundreds of different recordings of just those 3 movements in Summer. Sure you could just go to the album and play track 4, and pause when track 6 finishes. But this makes that a little easier to play and easier to add to playlists and such. There's also all the other metadata differences. Maybe I really like this composer, but apple music has it listed under the performing orchestra. Maybe I really like this conductor. This breaks all those out into different options.

squeaky-clean 4y ago

You can still listen to classical in the regular music app, all of these tracks and albums are in the main app. But if you find a recording you really like and want to check out more stuff by that composer or the conductor, or the performers... Well conventional streaming app UI and search kind of sucks for that. For example one of my most played artists on Apple music is "Various Artists" ;p