Concertmaster is an open source classical music front-end for Spotify. It uses Open Opus data and combines it with automated analysis of Spotify’s own metadata in order to create an improved user experience for classical music. It relies on crowdsourced curation as well for additional verification and refinement.
Concertmaster runs on Android phones and Mac, Windows, ChromeOS and Linux computers. Due to Spotify restrictions, it doesn’t run on iPads and iPhones but a Concertmaster app for iOS is in development.
Albums and tracks are convenient for popular music but not suitable at all for classical music and its large, fragmented works. Concertmaster is designed for multi-movement sets, that presents both a detailed view of each movement and a global progress bar of the work as a whole. The app presents full credits of each recording including its performers including orchestras, conductors, soloists, singers and chamber groups.
One of the criticisms of mainstream streamers such as Spotify and Apple Music is that their searching databases do not provide classical music enthusiasts with the breadth of information needed to distinguish between different performances of the same work. Popular works from say Beethoven or Tchaikovsky will have numerous recordings varying by conductor, orchestra or soloist which have in the past been difficult to distinguish.
One of the unique selling propositions of specialist classical music streamers, IDAGIO and Primephonic, has been their bespoke searches tuned to the classical repertoire. With the addition of an add-on such as Concertmaster it makes Spotify’s classical music catalogue more accessible to this genre’s enthusiasts.
The Concertmaster app is free and can be downloaded here.
