Apple Inc. has acquired classical-music streaming service Primephonic and plans to launch an app dedicated to the genre next year. Primephonic’s playlists and audio content will be integrated into Apple Music in the coming months, the company has said.

Primephonic’s existing service will be shut down on September 7, but its subscribers will get six months of Apple Music for free.

Since launching Apple Music in 2015, Apple has made a few acquisitions to bolster the service. It bought music-recognition app Shazam in 2018, letting customers identify songs and add them to their playlists.

But Apple has faced fierce competition from Spotify Technology SA in streaming music around the world. The Cupertino, California-based company didn’t disclose the Primephonic purchase price.

Besides, back at WWDC 2020, Apple announced its plans to completely transition to its own processors. The company said it would take around two years to fully transition to their own silicon. A recent report from Bloomberg detailed the company’s roadmap in the year to come. Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, in his edition of the Power On newsletter, explained that he believes the company will “barely hit its two-year timeline” for transitioning the Mac lineup fully to Apple Silicon. We have so far seen the Cupertino-based company brings its M1 chips to the MacBook Pro series, MacBook Air series, Mac Mini and the 24-inch iMac.

Source: Bloomberg