The Apple Music Classical app, announced by Apple when it acquired the classical music service Primephonic, could be launched in the near future. This is suggested by additional mentions of "Apple Music Classical" in the iOS 16.4 beta.
The code in the beta suggests that users must have the standard Apple Music app installed to be able to listen to Apple Music Classical, as MacRumors now reports reported. One line of the MusicKit framework states:
To listen to Apple Music Classical, you need to install Apple Music.
At the moment, there is no sign of an Apple Music Classical app in iOS 16.4. But that doesn't mean it won't arrive in a later beta or with the launch of iOS 16.4. Apple originally said in 2021 that Apple Music Classical would launch "next year," in 2022 - but that didn't happen. There was no launch of the new classical music in 2022, and Apple hasn't given any details on when we can expect the new app.
iOS 16.4 beta contains new code for Apple Music Classical
Apple has promised that Apple Music Classical will be a separate app for classical music, separate from Apple Music. But this makes it clear that the Apple Music Classical app also requires Apple Music to be installed. This is not the first time we have seen references to Apple Music Classical in an iOS 16 update. For example, iOS 16.3 added the phrase "Open in Apple Music Classical" to the code and there were also references to the feature in the backend code on Apple's website. It is unclear why Apple has taken so long to introduce an Apple Music Classical app. Although there are repeated references to it, it remains a mystery whether it will appear in iOS 16.4, a later iOS 16 update, or only in iOS 17. (Image: Apple)
