Just referencing the premise of the linked article. Did you read it?
Were Qobuz ever of interest to them? You only buy the companies that have something you want. Primephonic were clearly a market leader in classical music metadata. Iâm not sure Qobuz ever had that sort of attraction. But looking at other attributes listed as essential in the article then in my opinion that is Roon. Curation, discovery and quality.
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Interesting link, thank you. The important point of view as expressed in the article, though, to my mind, is: " But why would the worldâs largest company be interested in a closely held startup with a relatively small user base, a few dozen employees and no startling technological innovation to boast of?
The answer: Primephonic understood the future. Apple has realized that streaming services will succeed or fail depending on whether they master the four things the tiny company, along with its classical-music peers such as Idagio, have figured out: metadata, discovery, curation and quality. And that will hold true for video streaming, too, not just music. With the buyout, Apple is hoping to absorb Primephonicâs DNA."
On another, though related note, hereâs what a professor of music has to say about Apple Musicâs rivals for classical music: âQobuz is likely toast given that their competitive advantage was all about sound quality, and now Apple has mostly matched it,â Howard said. âNaxos is expensive and is an outgrowth of their label/publishing company, and seems more focused on education/institutions. Idagio is a decent product in terms of curated/exclusive content and sound quality, but their catalog is relatively small.â (How Appleâs Purchase of Primephonic Could Benefit Classical Music Lovers)
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Apple is big on marketing, was big with iTunes 800,000,000 customers, was itself always ahead in the market and has not maintained this position despite many purchases MOG-Beats-Apple Music. They were already in business at the turn of the millennium with MusicMatch and blew it. If there is something on the table that is even better than the now closed Primephonic, the cards will be reshuffled. Buy and shut down doesnât really help.
Is âprofessor of musicâ a supposed evidence of expertise in this matter?
No. It sounds more like wishful thinking. All these experts predicting the demise of qobuz and tidalâŚ. I have not heard a single convincing argument why they should be toast. Especially in an emerging market there is always a place for smaller players. Letâs wait and see.
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The argument is that none of the streaming services have been profitable, and thus the business isnât sustainable long term unless there is a path to profitability. That implies that streaming services have to grow in order to survive. Tidal are not in the same position as theyâve been bought by a large fintech.
this statement is true for mass suppliers on world markets, but there are also very successful niches with a different strategy, high prices, etc. They cover special needs better and highly profitably.
Is Apple meeting current customer demands with its efforts in this special segment so far?
I use Qobuz and Roon. Donât use Apple. I assume Apple Music is only usable as a part of the Apple ecosystem. I use an Android phone as do the clear majority of smart phone users
Colin while I do not use an Apple phone, Apple Music works perfectly on Android phones.
Apple has worked out that for services to thrive they cannot rely on their 12% (worldwide) market share. Now I do subscribe to Apple TV for a few TV shows and it is the only money I give to Apple, but as long as they continue to build and support it for non Apple devices then I am fine with that.
I think Apple measures each service on what it needs to be profitable. Music and TV were a no brainer as it only has about a 2% share of the (US) market with its TV devices as well
I am guessing if they added Primephonic it would come under the Apple music category even if it was an add on product and the classical music area is a small enough market as it is, without taking 88% of the world wide market away
Apple Music with iTunes on the Windows PC was a pain for me, on the old Mac acceptable and more helpful in many ways. It took a long time for Android, the web browser and many more to be well supported too. Some Android tablets continue to cause problems. Linux is not supported at all and even Wine or Android-x86 does not always help. The whole thing is still not designed openly enough for me and the music recommendations are probably only good if you have been a purchase customer for many years with familiar/ purchased songs. My multiple tests, even with the current Android phone, were no longer that bad, but they didnât give any added value either.
Now they are trying to approach the still small group of audiophiles. First measure Primephonic shut down.
I also donât understand why the new service had to go into marketing before the suitable hardware and why they are now going cheap. Are these effective competitive blows at the expense of Primephonic customers?
Doesnât this rather help other providers in the quality niche?
When everyone is losing money Iâm not sure there will be much of any Audiophile music left in a few years.
Personally I pay for Tidal family plan at the highest quality and that comes in at ÂŁ30 a month and I buy probably buy 10-15 albumâs a month (from Bandcamp when possible) on digital or CD so this is a fairly expensive hobby for many of us
Soon almost everyone will be streaming at CD quality so that is something that those of us who prefer quality streaming will have going for us and then we will see whether niche services can survive and what premium they have to charge.
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If people keep predicting the demise of Tidal and Qobuz, year after year, as though they want it to happen, at some point they may possibly be right. And then they will brag about how they called it. Forever.
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And add Roon to this as well!
I for one will continue to use Roon alongside either Tidal or Qobuz for as long as I am able.
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It works for me very well
Apple is taking giant steps forward after hiring Primephonic in August.
Shortly before Christmas, it is already clear that a UX designer is needed for this. Hopefully, they wonât have to wait another quarter until the notice period has expired to poach one. 
You can learn how important the right design is at Roon. I hope the management doesnât go this Apple way:
Use exclusively by voice commands
one week preview without automatic renewal
three month trial
on any Siri compatible device
with the âType to Siriâ feature
âŚ
If you try to use Apple Music without Siri via touch, you get a notification that you have to use Siri.
The new UX designer doesnât really need to take action anymore. It doesnât matter what you see on your phone.
Of much greater importance is that Siri can listen in all the time.
Maybe Iâm just getting too old to see this as a good market development. I thank the Roon team for saving me from that. 
Well, Apple Music isnât worried about making you happy, so you will be all set with Roon. Apple is all-in on bringing kids over from Spotify.
I have a number of twenty-somethings working for me and it might surprise you to know that everyone of them are serious listeners of classical music.
I will add this: I recently purchased a gen 3 set of AirPods. The positional audio is pretty amazing. It makes the music sound like itâs out in front of you, as opposed to the âthree globsâ of sound with many 'phones, if I can plaguerize the common criticism of the Sennheiser HD-650 (my favorite set of cans).
Give Apple a chance⌠they are making a serious effort to improve the experience of listening to music for most people (i.e. people without $4K headphones or $100K 2-channel systems). Of course, Apple can be blamed for destroying music in the first place, but thatâs ancient history.
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At the moment, an old MacBook Pro is lying unused in the closet, I havenât bought an iPhone anymore, explored the Windows Phone world and that part is also lying unused in the closet. For mobile and tablet I still use Android like 90% of the youth, but it will be exchanged for Linux in the next few years. Maybe even on the old devices.
My Windows PCs today all have dual-boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11 or start only Linux. I have also used the Macbook Pro with Linux.
From Ubuntu I migrated to Mint and then to Manjaro. The team works excellent and the big Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon & Co. become more and more a problem. Too hard due and when I read articles like this, I feel confirmed.
Of course, you canât be blind on any eye and have to watch and test again and again. With Apple Music, I have now probably tried for over a decade in vain, but once a year I can see what has happened. Apple is a big marketing machine, lots of empty words.
Itâs not about music, itâs about selling devices, especially now at Christmas. Once thatâs sold, the next Christmas sales will come with different formats and devices again. That doesnât work with me anymore.
Of course, everyone may do all differently. 
As the level of education increases, so does interest in classical music, but certainly not in the above offers. The youthful customer questions with such offers are:
How am I supposed to upload my own music or create playlists, or even more generally, how is this supposed to work with Siri? Siri doesnât understand German and English in the same sentence. Language change before every song change? Anyone who knows the Siri performance of AppleTV, make no more hopes that this will ever work properly. Spanish overwhelms Siri. Siri is no longer considered uncompetitiveâŚ
I canât speak to that, because I wonât be using voice control. Microsoft was already too slow, Google and Amazon are probably further along, but I have no interest in that either.
I think already my DT 770 Pro 250 Ohm have more power and sound quality on a Grundig system V7000 (80s), than any currently produced earplugs in this world.
These headphones have been decades of studio equipment and do not need to be replaced with new models from Beyerdynamik.
We have the problem that will always want to invent and sell the wheel multiple times. We better learn not from our children, but from our parents and grandparents, who have managed more sustainably.
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Is there any news on Apple Classical (was Primephonic)? Months and months of rumors so farâŚ
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Like spotify and the hires. Yes, I know. I wanted to say that as with Spotify and her announcement for a HIRES package in February 2020 ( Billy Ellish featured ), we have no news of what Apple will do with Primephonic. And thatâs almost a year!
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Rumours now available that say Apple Music Classical (Primephonic redux) will appear sooner.