Apple buys 50-year-old record company to develop Apple Music Classical – Ars Technica

Apple has acquired 50-year-old record label BIS Records, the Swedish company’s founder, Robert von Barr, announced Tuesday. The purchase of the classical music-focused brand follows Apple’s launch of the Apple Music Classical app in late March.

The purchase of Apple BIS adds to the app, which Apple in March called “the world’s largest catalog of classical music” with “more than” 5 million songs. Von Bahr said the record label will be integrated into the Apple Music Classical app and Platoon. Platoon, which identifies new talent and helps creators create, distribute and market their content, was bought by Apple in 2018. Von Barr noted that he had just turned 80 as part of the decision to sell. He also noted his interest in supporting Apple’s spatial audio and bringing “classical music to new audiences around the world”.

Neither Apple nor the Bank for International Settlements disclosed the acquisition price. However, von Barr said Apple will “keep” him and the rest of the BIS staff.

The acquisition is another step in Apple’s efforts to target classical music as it seeks to differentiate its streaming platform. Classical music continues to be a drop in the massive collection of on-demand music streaming. Data from data analytics firm Luminate, cited by Billboard in March, found that classical music accounted for 0.8% of in-demand streams in the United States in 2022. However, the data company also said in June that the classical music genre exceeded total demand. in the United States. Streamlined growth in 2022 (13.4 percent yoy vs. 12.2 percent yoy, respectively).

Apple launched Apple Music Classical as a separate app from Apple Music on March 28. Building on Apple’s acquisition of Primephonic in 2018, Apple Music Classical allows various search parameters related to classical works, from song title and composer, to the names of conductors and solo performers. , and more. Additional features include biographies of composers and deep dives into famous works. Since its release, Apple Music Classical has added support for devices running Android 9 Pie and later.

Apple did not respond to questions seeking clarification about how Apple Music Classical artists are paid and whether it differs from payments to Apple Music artists. PCMag suggested in March that the classical music app pay per stream, as Apple Music does. However, this will not benefit the ancient classics. And with its acquisition of BIS, Apple may gain insight into how it handles the financial side of classical music.