Apple purchases a 50-year-old Swedish classical record label

In an effort to continue luring classical music fans, Apple has bought BIS Records, a 50-year-old Swedish record label that focuses in classical music.

Robert von Bahr, the founder of BIS Records, announced on Tuesday that Apple had just acquired his record label and will include it into its Platoon and Apple Music Classical music services.

BIS Records and Apple both hold a “fundamental belief in the importance of preserving audio quality,” according to 80-year-old von Bahr, who cited Apple’s surround-sound spatial audio technology as “something I have followed with interest.”

According to von Bahr, “BIS’s specialty, while paying our dues to the core repertoire, has been to nurture young classical artists and interesting living composers and to safeguard the musical treasure that we all represent long into the future.” The company “Apple, with its own storied history of innovation and love of music, is the ideal home to usher in the next era of classical and has shown true commitment towards building a future in which classical music and technology work in harmony.”

Apple for comment regarding the cost of the purchase, but Apple did not provide any.

The purchase is yet another instance of Apple’s attempts to set itself apart from streaming-music competition Spotify by emphasising classical music.

It paid an undisclosed amount in 2021 to purchase Primephonic, a streaming service for classical music. Along with enabling users to stream classical music, Primephonic also created a sizable database collecting details about composers, orchestras, and conductors to assist fans of the genre have a more engaging experience.

The tech giant eventually released its own Apple Music Classical streaming app this past spring, promoting it as a way for current Apple Music members to access more than five million classical music that can be searched by criteria like composer, conductor, or catalogue number.

For an undisclosed sum, Apple acquired the small music distribution and technology company Platoon in 2018. Platoon for Artists is an app that Apple finally published to help musicians with streaming stats and song promotion.