Apple continues to expand its influence in the world of classical music. Prothrough the service Apple Music Classical announced a new partnership with the legendary London concert hall Wigmore Hall, which is considered one of the most prestigious venues for chamber music in the world.
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The partnership comes symbolically in the year that Wigmore Hall celebrates its 125th anniversary. The agreement also includes the restart of the Wigmore Hall Live project, which is now transitioning to a purely digital distribution and will be closely linked to Apple Music Classical.
What is particularly interesting about the entire collaboration is its operating model. The Wigmore Hall has decided to cover all costs associated with the production of the recordings and at the same time will not claim any share of the income. All royalties and licensing fees will go directly to the artists who perform on the recordings. This is a rather unusual step, which is intended to support the performers themselves and give them a greater share of the proceeds from their work.
The new platform will offer four digital albums a year, featuring live performances straight from Wigmore Hall. Each new album will be available exclusively through the platform for three months. Apple Music Classical, only then will it target other distribution channels.
The first recording to be released under the new partnership is a concert recording of pianist Boris Giltburg, who performed several of Beethoven’s piano sonatas at the Wigmore Hall in February last year. Listeners will also be treated to a special commentary by the pianist himself, in which he explains the background to each piece and his approach to performing them.
When announcing the collaboration, Wigmore Hall Director John Gilhooly emphasized that the high quality of the sound Apple Music Classical allows listeners to experience the closest thing to a real concert hall. And according to him, this is one of the main reasons why they chose this particular venue for their collaboration. Apple.
Moreover, this is not the first similar project by the Californian giant. Apple Music Classical has already established partnerships with institutions such as the Berlin Philharmonic in the past, Carnegie Hall, London Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera in New Yorkor the Vienna Philharmonic. It is thus obvious that Apple takes classical music very seriously and is trying to gradually build a platform that will offer lovers of this genre something extra compared to regular streaming services.
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Although Apple Music Classical remains a rather marginal issue for most users, similar steps show that Apple has long-term plans for this service. And given the names and institutions he's been able to win over, it certainly doesn't seem like he's going to slow down anytime soon.
