I’ve gotten reports from several correspondents today saying that the Classical genre has disappeared from the iTunes Store. It is missing from the UK store, as well as stores in Sweden, Italy, Canada, and Australia – see the screenshot to the left – but in the US, German, and French stores, it’s still visible in the list of genres.
This is, of course, quite a problem for anyone who wants to browse for classical music, as well as those labels selling classical music.
I’m guessing this is just some odd database bug; there’s no reason why Apple would remove classical music from the iTunes Store. So rather than assume the worst, it’s best to wait and see when it gets fixed.
In the meantime, this link should take you to the Classical section of the iTunes Store.
Update: I see that the Classical genre has returned to the UK and Canadian stores; I haven’t checked others, but, as I said above, it was a temporary glitch.