Classical Archives

I loved the website, but the app makes listening far more convenient. Additionally, it provides a terrific selection of performances and an easy way to discover new pieces by both familiar and more obscure composers. For example, one month I decided I wanted to listen to all of Mozart. The way the app is structured, it was easy to do.

This is a great app and even the website the inventory is staggering all the great composers however that doesn’t make up for continual hiccups with this app. For example you pick a composer, you pick the composition,then you put the artist into the playlist you have selected, be it on an iPad or a phone you then tap add to playlist and the first dozen entries or so go in with no problem but then after that many times you tap it suddenly it now will not open up an “add the composition to your playlist” tab like it’s frozen and the crazy thing is it WILL let you put the composition an other other playlist but not the playlist that you obviously DON’T want to put into that list it will let it go into that playlist but the one that you wanna put it in forget it, Example if I had a playlist labeled Beethoven in another one labeled Mozart when I try to put Beethoven’s fifth Symphony into the Beethoven playlist tap all day it won’t add it,however touch Mozart and it will add it, it’s so annoying this is a great site for $80 a year for the unlimited access to the inventory however when you have simple problems with trying to add something to a playlist and it repeatedly freezes then it’s worthless!

Always been interested in the Classical Archive, but wasn't interested in the browser interface. This app works well enough on my iPad that I became a member. Airplay streaming is accessible through the app, and background streaming works nicely, so I can easily stream music to my audio system while using the iPad for other purposes. However, the app lacks some of the functionality of the browser interface. For me, the most notable omission is the ability to go from a selected recording to the album containing that recording. Second most notable omission is the ability to search by performer. As these make clear, the interface is focused only on locating recordings of works by composer, genre, type of piece. Which isn't a bad place to start, I haven't found that doable with other online music services. So, four stars for a good start, and to encourage further development of this app in support of the best service I've found for the discovery of classical music. Give it a try - if you're not a member, it works just the same, except you only get a one-minute preview of each track.