Classical Archives

Classical Archives is my favorite app. It has the best premise and search function of all my apps on my IPhone. I use it a lot. They have improved it over the years. It is now less clunky but still the most clunky of all my commonly used apps. So ironic.

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!

Love the site but the app is terrible. When I leave the app to do something like answer a text message the music stops. When I lock my phone the music stops. So the only way I can listen to music is with my phone unlocked and the app open. That’s pretty stupid.

App is not compatible with voiceover for use by visually impaired or blind users. Please label buttons and other user interface elements so that app can be used.

First of all, this will cost you eight bucks a month – information you have to dig to find out. (I plan on canceling when I get the first charge.) Nothing on the site work for me. Repeatedly trying to line up selections to play meant my 20-number queue was full and I could go no further. There was no place to see what was in my queue, but I suspect it was almost entirely a selection I tried to add without any notification that it had actually been added. This experience was such a scam that I recommend Apple take it out of the store because it undermines confidence in the kind of product you were offering. The selection looks great – unfortunately I was unable to access any of it. I got one minute of my initial selection and could not get the site to do anything after that. (Oh, you can comment on your experience but I'm not holding my breath until I get a reply.) As far as I'm concerned, what I received from this download was less useful than a good screen saver. Do not waste your time with this app.

Crashes constantly, deleting queue. Terrible incredibly frustrating user experience. Cannot edit or add to playlists as you can on the website. Cannot listen to non-featured playlists other than your own as you can on the website. No playback features. Once songs are played they are removed from the queue so you cannot re-listen. What other music app is like this? Compare functionality to Spotify, Pandora, even soundcloud etc apps, and it’s clear there is so much room for improvement - especially given that this is a paid subscription service. Also, why in the world does the iTunes store delete your entire review if your alias has already been taken? Totally ridiculous, this is my fourth time typing this review.

If you try to jump to any selection in your queue, the app crashes. This is a problem because the limited search function means that you cannot select individual pieces of music (movements, for example); you must add the “entire” piece to your queue (whatever the app thinks is the “entire” piece). I contacted tech support and they said this is a known problem. Unfortunately, it makes this app, and therefore their service, unusable. (@margaretamartin)

But it is crashing every time I try to skip to next item in the queue on my iPhone.

Classical Archives has a very good streaming music service. This app streams good quality that doesn't fail.