The impending release of the Apple Musical Classical app is great news for anyone who prefers songwriters to college rock, but the Apple Music spinoff will come with a restrictive limitation at launch.
The list of requirements in the Apple Music Classical Preview (Opens in a new tab) on the App Store includes a line that says "to listen to music on Apple Music Classical, you must have an Internet connection." And Apple has now confirmed to us that there will be no offline listening option in the Apple Music Classical app, for the time being.
So if you were hoping to listen to Bach indoors away from a reliable internet connection, unfortunately that won't be possible on Apple's standalone classical music app in the same way that it is on Apple Music and the best streaming services. Whether that will change after its release on March 28 remains to be seen.
Obviously, this issue won't affect home listeners, but some other issues might. Interestingly, there is currently no iPad app for Apple Music Classical and Android users won't have access to its charms either. Fortunately, the latter won't be the case for long, as Apple says an Android app is "coming soon."
Despite these drawbacks, Apple Music Classical is shaping up to be a great new bonus service for Apple Music subscribers, who will get it at no additional cost to the usual $10.99 / £10.99 / AU$12.99 monthly fee. Apple says the app's catalog will contain more than five million tracks and will stream songs in high-resolution 24-bit/192kHz lossless quality and spatial audio with Dolby Atmos.
This will make Apple Music Classical a great partner for Sonos' new Dolby Atmos-compatible speaker, the Era 300, which is also launching on March 28 for $449 / £449 / AU$749. Since our hands-on review of the Already called a "really impressive speaker" by the Sonos Era 300, we're looking forward to pairing it with Apple Music Classical to boost our cultural cred several notches.
Analysis: Slowly building to a crescendo
Apple Music Classical has been in development for at least two years and won't be released until March 28, so it's no surprise that it arrives with some missing features.
Apple hasn't announced an iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch app for its new classical music service, but that doesn't mean we won't see them in the future, and the same goes for the off-air listening line.
Since there's a lot of classical music in standard Apple Music that can be downloaded for offline listening, it seems likely that Apple Music Classical will get the same capabilities once the service is established.
For now, Apple Music Classical's biggest selling point, and why it's a separate app from Apple Music, is its ability to organize and search. The ability to search by composer, work, conductor, or catalog number means you can quickly collect all recordings of a certain classical work in one place, which isn't always easy on other streaming services.
Since you can get it for free with an Apple Music subscription, it's a powerful new feature in Apple's battle with the newly revamped Spotify.