Recently Apple announced that it is going to release Apple Classical Music, a classical music streaming app, on 28 March. It also announced that iPhone users can “pre-order” on iOS devices. This means that the app will be automatically downloaded once it is launched for those who opt-in.

The announcement is a follow-up to Apple’s acquisition of Primephonic in August 2021. It said at the time that the purchase will bring a significantly improved classical music experience which includes better browsing and search capabilities detailed displays of classical music metadata, plus new features and benefits.

According to the latest announcement, the upcoming Apple Music App has:

• The world’s largest classical music catalogue with over 5 million tracks and works from new releases to celebrated masterpieces.
• Thousands of exclusive albums.
• The ability to search by composer, work, conductor, or even catalogue number, and find specific recordings instantly.
• The highest audio quality (up to 192 kHz/24-bit Hi-Res Lossless) with thousands of recordings in immersive spatial audio.
• Complete and accurate metadata to make sure you know exactly what works and which artist is playing.
• Thousands of editorial notes including composer biographies, descriptions of key works, and more.
• Apple Classical Music requires an Apple Music subscription and, at launch, will only be available on iPhones.

However, I have a few questions:

• What constitutes classical music? Is it only music written by long-dead Europeans for orchestras? Does that mean the service is just full of different recordings of the same music?
• Why a separate app? Will the library be different from what’s on Apple Music? Will the quality be different from Apple Music?
• Since the current AirPods can’t handle Hi-Res Lossless will be new AirPods? Will the new AirPods use wires or a proprietary wireless connection? How long will the phone speakers be the only way to listen to Hi-Res Lossless classical music?

As of this writing, I could not get these questions answered. But I’m not giving up.