Apple Acquires Swedish Classical Specialist BIS Records

BIS will now become part of Apple Music Classical and its artist services business, Platoon

Robert von Bahr founded BIS Records in Sweden in 1973 as a classical specialist label, which has offered releases of early music, plus traditional and contemporary composers.

The record label will now become part of Apple Music Classical (AMC) and its artist services business Platoon. BIS Recordings have since been available on Apple’s streaming platforms and eClassical.

According to TechCrunch and recent statistics, over 80% of the music accessed today is through streaming — of which only 0.8% accounted for classical music streams. 

To increase the reach of the genre, Apple also acquired the classical music streaming service Primephonic in 2021, and announced AMC in March 2023, which involves an initial 5 million tracks with immersive spatial audio.

“A few days ago BIS Records turned 50 years old and I am immensely proud of what our small team of people has accomplished during this half-century,” wrote von Bahr in a blog post.

“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,” he added. “It is to that end that, after much careful consideration, and having just turned 80, I am excited to announce the rather momentous news that we have made the decision to become part of the Apple family.

“As proud as I am of this milestone, I am even more proud of the fact that the entire personnel of BIS, including me, have been retained. We all look forward to a future, filled with new music and artists in golden sound from this increased force in classical music.”