Launched in the Spring of 2023, the Apple Music Classical app is available at no extra cost to Apple Music subscribers. The app is said to boast the largest classical music catalog, with over 5 million unique tracks and thousands of exclusive albums. Users can search by composer, work, conductor, or catalog number.
Now, it offers a Top 100 chart: it’s weekly and derived from listening data spanning over 165 countries!
Apple Music Classical has been a huge hit with classical fans around the world. With the launch of Apple Classical Top 100 and the recently announced new partnerships, the app is transforming the world of classical.
— Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats.
The Top 100 chart is refreshed every Monday and is accessible through the Apple Music Classical app or Apple’s chart website. It is compiled using five sources that reflect listening statistics from what Apple claims to be more than 165 countries. These sources include:
- Apple Music Classical streams
- Apple Music streams
- iTunes downloads
- iTunes song sales
- Shazam tags
Apple asserts that this diverse array of sources from numerous countries makes Apple Music Classical Top 100 “the most comprehensive and representative chart available”.
The first Top 100 chart is led by “Bach: Keyboard Concertos with Chinese pianist Tianqi Du and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields,” under the direction of Jonathan Bloxham. Bach, as everyone with the help of Google knows, was born in 1685.
Speaking of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields orchestra, I can’t help but recall the intergalactic 1984 masterpiece Amadeus – a fictional depiction of Mozart’s bitter feud with rival Antonio Salieri directed by Milos Forman. Even if you’re not keen on spending 2 hours and 40 minutes of your life to watch that movie, you can check out the soundtrack, which was recorded by the said Academy of St Martin in the Fields orchestra. It received 13 Gold Discs, making it one of the most popular classical music recordings of all time.
Back to this week’s numero uno in the Top 100 chart. Here’s how Tianqi Du feels about topping the hit parade: I’m deeply honored for my latest album to be top of the first Apple Classical 100 chart. These concertos are a vibrant showcase of Bach’s energy and spirit, bursting with emotional richness and expressive depth”.
More about the Apple Music Classical
Featuring a specialized search engine for classical music, Apple Music Classical offers high audio quality (up to 192 kHz/24-bit Hi-Res lossless) and allows for spatial audio listening without ads. It also includes hundreds of curated playlists, composer biographies, guides to key works, and intuitive browsing features, making it accessible for both enthusiasts and newcomers.
An Apple Music subscription (Individual, Student, Family, or Apple One) is required, and the app is not available for Apple Music Voice Plan subscribers. Availability is limited in certain countries including China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and requires iOS 15.4 or later and an internet connection.
Apple’s creation of this app follows its August 2021 acquisition of classical music streamer Primephonic.
The Apple Music app is available from the App Store for iOS and the Google Play Store for Android.
