Apple Music Classical evolved from Primephonic, which Apple acquired in 2021 with the intention of launching a classical music-focused app in 2022. The promise of Apple Music Classical is that it will handle the complex metadata often associated with classic recordings better. and the app will also include things like curated playlists and composer biographies to help people learn more about the genre.

Apple says the app’s catalog contains more than 5 million songs and lets you listen to music at resolutions up to 192 kHz/24 bit hi-res without loss of quality. However, there are a few caveats with the app. Subscribers to the Apple Music Voice Plan cannot use Classical. And at launch there won’t be a native iPad version and you won’t be able to download music to listen to offline.

I’m disappointed with the lack of offline downloads, but I’m still looking forward to delving into the app. While I have to be online to use it, Apple Music Classical still seems like a good way to learn about a genre I think I should be more versed in – although if I’m being honest, it first I’m going to look up renditions of Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero.”