The new version of Apple Music Classical adds thousands of booklets, which provide additional information, context and data about releases. However they're clearly made for print, so they're best viewed on iPads.
Apple Music Classical, the music app for people who prefer Chopin to Charli XCX, has just been updated to version 2.0. And while there aren't tons of new features – Apple Music Classical already delivers important sonic features such as spatial audio and Apple Lossless – there's a very big addition in the form of digital booklets.
The booklets are available for both iPhone and iPad, although I think even the biggest display in the iPhone 16 Pro Max is still a bit small; I think you're definitely going to like the feature more on an iPad.
The new booklets are available for thousands of albums, and when one's available for the record you're looking at you'll see a little book icon appear at the top right of the Apple Music Classical window. Tap on that and the booklet will download on your device and open inside the app.
What do Apple Music Classical booklets actually do?
The new booklets are very much like the ones in iTunes. The content depends on the specific booklet, because they've been put together by the record companies. But typically they'll deliver extensive liner notes, photography of the performance and detailed credits so you can find out about the individual conductors and soloists.
For example, if you download the booklet for Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmonic's performance of Holst's The Planets, you'll get an introduction from Simon Rattle and then some short essays by some of the other featured artists.
The booklets are very clearly designed for print, however, and they're basically unreadable on an iPhone in portrait mode; switching into landscape is better but you'll still be doing a lot of scrolling. This is one of those features where I think size really does matter.
While I'm not too sure about the execution here I love the idea: one of the things I really miss about the move from physical media to streaming media is the loss of liner notes. And classical in particular lends itself to reading as well as listening, so this new feature is likely to be very welcome.
