What do you think about the upcoming Apple Music Classical app?

The app will be released on March 28.
Apple Music Classical is available to Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost.

Apple App Store

I currently have a free trial to Apple Music and I’m liking it a lot. (Haven’t compared it to similar services.) So far, I’ve been undecided about proceeding with a paid subscription and paying $10/month (forever?) with no permanent rights to any of the music, vs. buying some music every month. Of course, the difference in selection is enormous. Apple Music Classical would add another valuable aspect to my enjoyment of music.

What do you think?

I think I’ll keep going to the library and borrowing CDs to upload to my computer. For free.

Since I compose classical music, it makes me happy. Currently most of my songs cannot be on Apple Music.

Do you have any other streaming services, or cable television? It’s no different than spending x dollars a month on Hulu or Netflix with no permanent rights to the television programs.

You should get it.

Good point but there are differences.
I rarely watch a movie or television episode more than twice whereas I’ll routinely listen to a piece of music many times. Over the years, I’ve purchased very few DVDs (or VHS tapes), but I have about 400 CDs and I’ve purchased hundreds of tracks from iTunes. For me, music has been something that I buy if I want to listen to something particular and movies are something that I rent, either literally or effectively.

Conversely, Apple Music offers practically every commercial musical recording ever made while Netflix has nowhere near all movies and TV shows. (Hulu isn’t available in Canada but I’m pretty sure that they offer only a small portion of what’s been available over the years.)

I presume the “classical is orchestral but orchestral is not necessarily classical” ship has long sailed, eh?

Sounds like you’re continuing to make a case why this would be a reasonable expense for you.

It depends on how the artist classifies it. When I write an orchestral piece, I can classify it in a number of different ways. The two most common are going to be classical or soundtrack. Prior to this upcoming change, if I marked a piece as classical, then Apple simply would not take it. Period. If I marked it as a soundtrack, then I need to specify what kind of soundtrack it is. That’s why you’ll often see orchestral pieces with descriptions like “Epic Theme” or something like that. I’m not sure how hard they are on classical composers trying to pass off obviously classical pieces as soundtracks.