After finally launching the long awaited Apple Music Classic app for iOS two months agoApple was expected to quickly roll out an optimized version of the app for iPad and Mac users who want to enjoy Beethoven while they work. Instead, the company surprised everyone by releasing an Android edition first.
Available for free download at Google Play Store, Apple Music Classical for Android is very similar to the iPhone version, with similar formatting and seemingly all the same features. AS 9to5Mac notes, “it even has crossfading support, something Apple platforms only support on Macs.” It too requires an Apple Music subscription, which costs $10.99 / £10.99 per month.
It’s not unusual for Apple to make products compatible with rival platforms – most famously the Windows version of iTunes which remained available for years after being removed from macOS. But the company obviously would prefer people switching to their own platforms and tends to give other platforms a slightly (or less) worse experience. Apps come out later and don’t look as good, and hardware devices don’t have the same functionality. (You can use your AirPods with an Android phone, for example, but you don’t get Siri support.)
It is therefore surprising that Android users have their own Apple Music Classical app so early and in such a well done form. Equally surprising is that Apple has yet to launch an iPad version of the app. iPad owners can install the iPhone app, but it’s not optimized for the platform. There’s not even a Mac app yet, and you can’t even use Apple Music Classical with CarPlay. Apple hasn’t addressed any of these limitations, so it could be days, weeks, or months before we see the iPad or Mac versions.
As 9to5Mac points out, the timing and quality of Android’s rollout may reflect that Apple Music Classical isn’t an entirely new service. It is the result of an acquisition: Cupertino bought Primephonic in August 2021 and put that service into Apple Music. There used to be an Android app, but that was shut down and Android-based subscribers waited a while before resuming the service.
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