What it says is that 1) classical music is not a genre only listened to by older people 2) it is the fourth most popular genre. That’s why there’s plenty of potential in classical streaming.
By the way, Idagio subscribers are 100% classical (not 35% – that’s the percentage relative to all genres), as Idagio is only classical.
I also believe that Apple/Primephonic is the best thing that could have happened for classical music streaming. That’s the sentiment of Primephonic CEO Steffens (who is also head of classical music label Signum). Whatever you think of Apple, of all the bigger players, they are the ones that stand the best chance of getting classical music streaming right, as of right now, they already have the best app for classical (compared to Spotify, Deezer, Amazon and, to my mind, also Qobuz and Tidal). Finally, I’m sure that Apple did their research and concluded that there was significant potential to making classical music more mainstream. Had their research indicated anything else, they would never have acquired Primephonic.
Of course he will say that as he likely has a very positive bank balance through the deal now.
But, yes making it more visible to more people is a good thing, but having all this in the control of only big tech companies is the downside as it looses it’s individuality and if they feel it doesn’t fit it will go in a blink of an eye. Lets hope not.
He describes the necessities in this niche very well and says that Spotify or Apple will not cover the classic market well. 99% of the customers have other needs. He also mentions the possible 1% customers who are always served completely wrong there. He would much rather have more collaborations in his niche, but it will also hit his competitors.
This is not a love marriage, but an economic reasonable forced marriage to save maybe still something into the future. First, the servers will be shut down. Some will try Apple, others will look for another niche provider. There it is still much easier to find labels, conductors or orchestras. He wanted more quality and more earnings in the niche. That’s where the cards will probably be shuffled differently in the future.
The fan and artist in the genre of classical music previously failed for the most part on Spotify and Apple, which is the only reason this niche existed. Apple Music is taking a different approach. Apple is oriented in particular to Spotify and the global market. Flogs now even with Amazon Hifi to not lose further ground.
If Apple managers believe they can shut down the classical music servers and have to work for many more months on an even better recommendation algorithm for the classical genre, failure is inevitable. This works better immediately with Roon, Qobuz, Idagio or Primephone and all other niche providers. That’s why we’re here and not just Apple.
It’s a specialized business with almost no synergy to the broader music market. The differentiation between different versions of a work, the unique licensing structure needs these specialists in the niche who approach it all with heart and more expertise. So which employees go along and get management roles?
We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m quite optimistic, though, as integration with Primephonic is not about recommendation algorithms, but bespoke curation (hand-picked playlists). Why Primephonic needs to shut down, that’s probably for technical reasons. I am a subscriber to Primephonic, and even though the app works well, there’s room for improvement. Of course, Mr Steffens will welcome a nice paycheque, but to be fair, he always believed that one of the big players would eventually have to step in and take over the niche platforms, as they stood no real chance of surviving in a very competitive market. Look at Qobuz: where would it stand without Roon integration? I have been a subscriber to Qobuz since the beginning (I live in France), and their app hasn’t made any noticeable progress for many years.
I think in a year or two the streaming market will have changed considerably, with some players no longer in existence. That’s one of the reasons I’m happy that Apple seems to take classical music seriously, because Apple will be around for a very long time.
Let’s resume this discussion once the new AM classical music app will be released.
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AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
28
Hold on…
Pretty sure the thread title was Qobuz price reduction (UK).
Not PrimePhonic and Apple save the classical streaming world …again😎
C’mon people there are threads for that subject already.
Survival of the Primephonic vision at Apple might come down to whether the Primephonic staff are kept or replaced with Apple programmers. I have difficulty seeing Apple in the world of bespoke curation and would expect a remake.
These Apple and Primephonic comments aren’t so OT considering that the topic is about Qobuz reducing prices due to the price war started by Apple, and what’s at stake is Qobuz’s survival. Primephonic are exhibit A.
Apple’s acquisition of Primephonic is central to THIS thread. After all, Qobuz didn’t decide to offer a reduction in price out the goodness of their heart. They must be feeling the squeeze. Not so long ago Qobuz said that they couldn’t possibly lower their price, as being unsustainable in the long run. Interestingly, Qobuz lowered their price not immediately after Apple Music went hi-res, but two days after the announcement of the Primephonic-Apple deal. Qobuz is much cherished among classical music lovers – and should those lovers make the switch to AM, Qobuz will basically be dead.
And this also affects Roon, hugely. Should Qobuz fold, Roon will be in trouble too.
Maybe the best would be for Roon to be acquired by Apple as well. I know that Roon wouldn’t be averse to that. Why shouldn’t it happen.? Apple would have cornered the audiophile market.
If classical is 4th most popular genre, the number of classical subscribers out there will dwarf the number of Roon subscribers. Orders of magnitude difference. Not even same ballpark.
Roon are not on Apple’s radar for subscriber numbers.
For anyone that is interested… I had just taken out a full year subscription of Qobuz Studio Premier Family (UK) ten days ago and they quickly agreed to refund me the prorated difference for the rest of the year. Very good customer service…
, as it is right now Apple is as far from the audiophile meaning as it can be.