Apple Music Classical
Here's a quick review of the :30 spot introducing Apple Music Classical, the new companion app to Apple Music released last month.
An opening scene shows a man seated on a sofa, iPhone in hand, AirPods in ear. He is the consumer persona.
A super title reads: Introducing Music Classical
It is quiet, but you can hear the iOS keyboard sound of typing. And maybe light rain in the background.
Then we see his device screen as he taps-in searches for -
Alice Sara Ott
Beethoven
Op. 1
Op. 15
Karina Canellakis
The sound and scene build with each search - from ASO sitting at the piano bench, to Beethoven unaccompanied, to KC behind the stand conducting, to Beethoven concerto, to a small orchestra.
The addition of the conductor and orchestra brings with it a product demo - Spatial Audio - a 3D effect for arrayed speakers.
The supers then read -
Search by
Artist
Composer
Conductor
Instrument
Orchestra
These searches are accompanied by visuals, demonstrating the app's unique content categorization designed to be classical-first.
Apple Music subscribers who listen to classical music will instantly recognize the value of this feature. With millions of pieces, and the same one sometimes recorded hundreds of times by different combinations of performer, conductor and orchestra, the product is made to help listeners find what they want.
The final super reads - Introducing the app for classical
The film used in this commercial is original but it references an album cover of a Beethoven Piano Concerto released this year by Deutsche Grammophon featuring Ott and Canellakis with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.
While having a second app for classical music may seem complicated, the indexing is very different for this genre. And difficult to execute at this scale. Apple got some help with this. They did not build the app from scratch, but rather Apple-ized it from a product they acquired several years ago called Primephonic.
Some integrations between Apple Music and Apple Music Classical exist already. For example, playlists and favorites are synced across both apps. Create it in one, and it shows up in the other.
However Apple Music Classical is only available on iOS (not MacOS) at this point. The implication of this is you can't ask Siri to play something on a Homepod smart speaker yet.
Last word. IMO, it feels good to see Apple presenting the app this way - a new thing to take an old thing forward.
Watch and listen here:
