Photo Credit: Prasad Panchakshari
The latest version of Apple Music Classical (2.1) now offers support for both Siri and CarPlay. Apple experimented with CarPlay support for its classical music app last year—but it was removed just hours after release. Now it’s back.
CarPlay offers Apple Music Classical listeners access to all of their playlists, library, recommendations, and more right on the vehicle’s infotainment display. With the update on iOS 18.1, users can also search using Siri via CarPlay for specific composers, artists, works, and instruments across English, Spanish French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch. Apple says support for additional languages will be added over time.
It’s taken Apple nearly a year to get CarPlay working with Apple Music Classical, which will be a huge boon to classical music fans. The app launched in March 2023 and offers access to over five million classical music tracks for Apple Music subscribers at no additional cost. While Siri and CarPlay support are finally here, many subscribers are still asking for a native macOS app. Apple’s development pace on its classical music app has been rather slow since it acquired Primephonic in 2021.
What is now Apple Music Classical is based on the original Primephonic app, which offered unique search and filter features for classical music. Those features included the ability to search by composer and repertoire, detailed displays of classical music metadata, and exclusive Primephonic classical music playlists that morphed into Apple Music Classical playlists after the acquisition.
Apple originally planned to launch its classical music offering in 2022, but a delay in getting the Apple Music Classical app ready forced a launch in 2023. Now more than a year and a half after launch, Apple Music Classical is finally getting the same feature parity with the default Apple Music app. The slow development pace for Apple Music Classical leaves much to be desired for fans, who still ask for macOS and Apple TV support. Perhaps that’s next on the docket now that CarPlay is worked out?