Jordi Savall unveils AEVUM, new streaming platform for classical music, jazz and world traditions

The service, scheduled to launch between late 2027 and early 2028, will enter an established specialist streaming market with a model promising higher payments to producers and an experience tailored to classical music, jazz and traditional music.

Jordi Savall has unveiled AEVUM, a new music streaming platform designed around classical music, jazz and traditional music, with a commercial launch planned between late 2027 and early 2028.

The project was presented on 28 September at Station F in Paris by Savall and the AEVUM team. Its founders are Savall, philosopher Maria Bartels, music entrepreneur Yves Riesel and Éric Guillemaud. Riesel, who founded Qobuz in 2007 and led it until 2015, serves as AEVUM’s strategic and operational director. DL-AEVUM-Dossierdepresse-28sept… DL-AEVUM-Dossierdepresse-28sept… DL-AEVUM-Dossierdepresse-28sept…

A crowded specialist market

AEVUM will enter a market in which several services already address some of the particular requirements of classical listeners.

Apple Music Classical offers a dedicated classical search system, editorial material and specialised metadata and is included with an Apple Music subscription. The service is available wherever Apple Music operates except Russia and Türkiye.

Berlin-based IDAGIO is devoted specifically to classical music and says its service is available in more than 190 countries, with mainland China the principal exception. Presto Music, meanwhile, operates a specialist classical and jazz streaming service with more than 200,000 albums, hi-resolution audio, digital booklets and a search engine designed for classical repertoire.

Qobuz, which Riesel co-founded, is not restricted to classical music but has long targeted audiophile and specialist listeners with high-resolution streaming. Its geographical footprint is narrower: the service currently operates in 26 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, much of Western Europe, Japan, Australia and several Latin American markets.

Against that background, AEVUM is positioning itself not simply through repertoire specialisation but through a different economic model and the use of technology to address metadata, search and royalty distribution.

A different streaming model

AEVUM argues that the economics and technology of mainstream streaming platforms are poorly suited to repertoire requiring attentive listening. According to the project, existing generalist services favour commercially dominant genres while providing inadequate documentation, search tools and remuneration for more specialised repertoire. DL-AEVUM-Dossierdepresse-28sept…

The new service will concentrate on three areas that AEVUM collectively describes as “Art music”: classical music, jazz and traditional music. Its prospective catalogue is estimated at more than 300,000 albums, representing around four million tracks. Participation will not be exclusive, meaning labels, producers and artists will be able to maintain their catalogues on other streaming services.

AEVUM says its economic model will include valuing streams according to actual listening time and distributing subscribers’ contributions more directly to the producers whose recordings they listen to. The platform describes its approach as “customer centric”, in contrast to the market-centric model it says dominates generalist streaming. DL-AEVUM-Dossierdepresse-28sept… DL-AEVUM-Dossierdepresse-28sept…

The project claims that this will result in substantially higher revenues for producers, labels and artists. The press dossier, however, does not yet specify subscription prices or provide figures showing what individual streams would pay under the proposed model.

AI, metadata and blockchain

Technology forms another major part of the proposal. AEVUM is developing a proprietary database intended to provide more extensive documentation and more effective searches for the repertoire it carries. Artificial intelligence will be used to enrich and organise that data and support additional user features.

The service also plans a module called 1877, intended to allow users to explore the history and documentation of recorded music beyond the digital catalogue currently available through streaming platforms.

Blockchain technology, meanwhile, is intended to provide greater transparency and speed in reporting and payments to producers, labels and artists.

Launch planned for 2027–28

AEVUM says it will spend the coming months consulting internationally with artists, producers and other music-industry professionals before the service is completed. The public launch is currently planned for between late 2027 and early 2028.

For Savall, the initiative also continues a longstanding involvement in independent recorded music. He founded his own label, Alia Vox, in 1998 and has since released much of his recorded work through it.