All About Streaming Music Services

[NumberSix]

Alongside my 60-day trial of TIDAL, I have also been trying out Idagio for a 2-week run. (I tried it about a year ago and thought I would give it another chance.)

On paper, it has everything a classical fan could ask. Unlike Presto, it has the ability to make playlists and to carve out tracks or works from an album when playing.

In Presto, it's like playing a record: You can start where you want within an album, and you can manually change to another track -- but you can't set it to, for instance, only play the 3rd Symphony from a boxset of all the Bruckners. If you don't stop it, it will keep going.

Idagio lets you have a little more control of what you add to the play queue. But my complaint is the same as it was last time: The software is just ugly and a hassle to navigate. It takes too many clicks to do many things, and the phone or desktop app will be slow sometimes to respond.

Plus, here's something weird: When playing a piece on my iPhone, the app will sometimes choose the composer's picture instead of the album art -- especially when playing from a playlist. Obviously, that's not the end of the world. But it is odd and kind of annoying.

And for all the metadata offered in Presto and Idagio, their search functionality sucks. You can't drill down. In Apple Classical, I can search "Beethoven". It will then let me choose a work. From that work, I will see some recommended and popular recordings. But then I can expand to all the recordings. From that "all" list, I can scroll down, sorting by date or popularity. Or I can further search for something like "Karajan" or "Chicago". [and of course, just like with any music app, I could start with something like "Brahms 4 Solti" and skip all that drill-down]

Plus, Apple Classical just all around looks prettier. I wish it had a MacOS app I could use instead of the main Apple Music app for Classical when at my desk, and I suspect it will eventually. (in the meantime, they could have the option to use the iPad since I have a silicon chip, but they don't so far).

Regardless of that limitation, Apple is still at this point my top software for classical music.

[Madiel]

Hang on, pretty well everything you're saying you can do in Apple but not Idagio, I can do in Idagio.

I know nothing about playlists. But almost all my searching is by work, not by album. And yes, when I do this it uses the picture of the composer. Because I'm not in an album, I'm in a performance of a work.

Idagio simply doesn't treat the album as the primary unit of music, it gives you the choice. You can switch between album mode and work mode fairly easily. But several of your comments read as if you were thinking in album terms and ended up in the work side of things without entirely realising.

I can most certainly look up Beethoven and then get a list of Beethoven works that I can filter. That is EXACTLY how I use Idagio 95% of the time. I only land on album pages very occasionally.

[Madiel]

Idagio Works page. Note also that "albums" and "recordings" are 2 distinct options. "Recordings" will take you to recordings of works, though to be honest I never use this, I'll go to the work first and pick a recording. But "recordings" are what you will find in playlists.

[Madiel]

Here are my recent Idagio searches. You will see it's perfectly possible to search for a composer, which will take you to a page like the one in my previous post. Or for a work. Or for an album.

So the problems you were having honestly mostly sound like you were treating Idagio as if it was album-focused, and not realising you can bypass them entirely. It actually OPENS for me on mobile on the browse page with famous composers at the very top, which is why I found the comments about "on Apple Music I can search for Beethoven" a bit bewildering. On Idagio I don't technically even have to search for Beethoven. I just have to scroll to the right a little past Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart.

[NumberSix]

Idagio Works page. Note also that "albums" and "recordings" are 2 distinct options. "Recordings" will take you to recordings of works, though to be honest I never use this, I'll go to the work first and pick a recording. But "recordings" are what you will find in playlists.

I would say that you're correct about the way I've been thinking of approaching search and organization. It's absolutely been coloring my use of the service.

I appreciate your thoughts and your including some images. I will give the service a little bit more time and see if it works better for me if I try to adjust the way I think about it.

[Madiel]

I would say that you're correct about the way I've been thinking of approaching search and organization. It's absolutely been coloring my use of the service.

I appreciate your thoughts and your including some images. I will give the service a little bit more time and see if it works better for me if I try to adjust the way I think about it.

Happy to help, it's okay if you still don't prefer it but it's worth knowing what's possible. I suspect the key for you would be to try the Browse page, it sounds like you've spent a lot of time on Discover, which is much more about showing latest album releases and curated playlists.

I should probably clarify, on the works page for a composer, the search bar will only search within that composer's list of works. And it filters pretty well for most things, if I know an opus number or similar I'll often just type that in the search bar and immediately get the relevant work.  The "filter" button on that page is to filter the list of works by genre (orchestral, chamber, vocal etc.)

[NumberSix]

Happy to help, it's okay if you still don't prefer it but it's worth knowing what's possible. I suspect the key for you would be to try the Browse page, it sounds like you've spent a lot of time on Discover, which is much more about showing latest album releases and curated playlists.

I should probably clarify, on the works page for a composer, the search bar will only search within that composer's list of works. And it filters pretty well for most things, if I know an opus number or similar I'll often just type that in the search bar and immediately get the relevant work.  The "filter" button on that page is to filter the list of works by genre (orchestral, chamber, vocal etc.)

Just wanted to say that thanks to your encouragement, I have been using Idagio a lot. I have gotten comfortable with how searching works and how the library is managed.

I find myself missing features I can't even articulate when I go back to Apple or Presto. They just don't feel complete.

(I do regret the lack of queue management on desktop. But is is an option on the iPhone app so that's okay in the long run. I usually only listen to a work or an album at a time anyway. And playlists are great for breaking up big sets.)

[Madiel]

Just wanted to say that thanks to your encouragement, I have been using Idagio a lot. I have gotten comfortable with how searching works and how the library is managed.

I find myself missing features I can't even articulate when I go back to Apple or Presto. They just don't feel complete.

(I do regret the lack of queue management on desktop. But is is an option on the iPhone app so that's okay in the long run. I usually only listen to a work or an album at a time anyway. And playlists are great for breaking up big sets.)

And I don't even get a commission for all this work. 

I used to use the other classical streaming app before Apple swallowed it up (heck I can't even remember the name now, it took so long before Apple Classical turned up as the replacement). And in hindsight I ended up preferring Idagio anyway. It's not perfect, but it's pretty rare for me to not get the outcome I want from it.

[NumberSix]

And I don't even get a commission for all this work. 

I used to use the other classical streaming app before Apple swallowed it up (heck I can't even remember the name now, it took so long before Apple Classical turned up as the replacement). And in hindsight I ended up preferring Idagio anyway. It's not perfect, but it's pretty rare for me to not get the outcome I want from it.

It feels like a streaming service for grown-ups. 

[NumberSix]

Primephonic, I think the old one was.

[AnotherSpin]

It feels like a streaming service for grown-ups. 

I once had a subscription to Idagio to listen on my computer or phone, and I liked the service. The problem is that Idagio isn't adapted for use with specialized streamers. At least it wasn't when I last checked.

[NumberSix]

I once had a subscription to Idagio to listen on my computer or phone, and I liked the service. The problem is that Idagio isn't adapted for use with specialized streamers. At least it wasn't when I last checked.

Certainly that's a concern. Idagio also doesn't play natively on my Alexa speakers, unlike the other major services. (also an issue for Presto)

[Madiel]

Primephonic, I think the old one was.

Yes, that was it. I was briefly very unhappy about its demise... then within a couple of weeks of switching to Idagio I was fine.

[Madiel]

Certainly that's a concern. Idagio also doesn't play natively on my Alexa speakers, unlike the other major services. (also an issue for Presto)

I have to confess not knowing much about this stuff. I AirPlay services from my iPhone to my CD player's speakers. This works fine for both Idagio and Deezer, so an awful lot of my music at home is run from my iPhone this way.

[NumberSix]

I have to confess not knowing much about this stuff. I AirPlay services from my iPhone to my CD player's speakers. This works fine for both Idagio and Deezer, so an awful lot of my music at home is run from my iPhone this way.

Most of the time, I am using wired headphones at my desk or airpods pro2 on my phone, so it's not a problem. I will occasionally bluetooth to Alexa, though.

No service works as smoothly with Alexa devices as Spotify, not even amazon music. But it's not a world-ender to not have that "Connect" capability.

If someone uses third party devices outside of phone and desktop, though, then presumably something like TIDAL works better. (I am currently using TIDAL for my non-classical library - sounds like you use Deezer.)

[AnotherSpin]

Most of the time, I am using wired headphones at my desk or airpods pro2 on my phone, so it's not a problem. I will occasionally bluetooth to Alexa, though.

No service works as smoothly with Alexa devices as Spotify, not even amazon music. But it's not a world-ender to not have that "Connect" capability.

If someone uses third party devices outside of phone and desktop, though, then presumably something like TIDAL works better. (I am currently using TIDAL for my non-classical library - sounds like you use Deezer.)

Qobuz works fine for me. Initially, I was comparing and choosing between Tidal and Qobuz (this was before Amazon and Apple services appeared) and ended up choosing Qobuz. I might have reconsidered my selection with the emergence/upgrade of some services on the market, but I just paid again for the annual subscription at the end of August, so I'll wait for now.

[Papy Oli]

Have you guys received an email from Qobuz yesterday indicating that some recordings would become unavailable for streaming/purchasing for 1st Oct. and then a subsequent email indicating which of your purchases that would impact (not-redownloadable after this date)? If so, would you mind sharing which labels you have seen impacted please?

From my side, it was 2 x Chandos (Pierné), 1 x Bis (VIlla-Lobos Choros), 6 x Supraphon (but not all of them: 6 Ancerl Gold out of 12 purchased).

Just wanted to know which potential labels (and therefore future purchases) might be impacted and might need brought forward.

Thank you.

[AnotherSpin]

Have you guys received an email from Qobuz yesterday indicating that some recordings would become unavailable for streaming/purchasing for 1st Oct. and then a subsequent email indicating which of your purchases that would impact (not-redownloadable after this date)? If so, would you mind sharing which labels you have seen impacted please?

From my side, it was 2 x Chandos (Pierné), 1 x Bis (VIlla-Lobos Choros), 6 x Supraphon (but not all of them: 6 Ancerl Gold out of 12 purchased).

Just wanted to know which potential labels (and therefore future purchases) might be impacted and might need brought forward.

Thank you.

Since I have never purchased anything on Qobuz and only used streaming, I haven't received any emails, and I probably won't. I have a UK account, and perhaps the conditions differ depending on the country. From various sources of information, Chandos is often mentioned, and BIS occasionally. Now Supraphon too. I'm sorry if some important recordings on BIS disappear, like Suzuki or Pettersson's symphonies. Well, in this life, nothing is continuous; everything arises from nowhere and disappears into nowhere. Hyperion came, Chandos left. I'll manage somehow, I'm used to it.

[Papy Oli]

Since I have never purchased anything on Qobuz and only used streaming, I haven't received any emails, and I probably won't. I have a UK account, and perhaps the conditions differ depending on the country. From various sources of information, Chandos is often mentioned, and BIS occasionally. Now Supraphon too. I'm sorry if some important recordings on BIS disappear, like Suzuki or Pettersson's symphonies. Well, in this life, nothing is continuous; everything arises from nowhere and disappears into nowhere. Hyperion came, Chandos left. I'll manage somehow, I'm used to it.

The BIS pettersson was one set on my wishlist funnily enough. I saw Chandos and BIS being 'greyed out' overnight a few years ago when I streamed on Qobuz.
I was just curious to see the extent of labels or recordings this time (compared to my wishlist items). Guess I'll have to wait and see 

[NumberSix]

My Idagio trial ends in about a week, and I decided it made more sense to use Presto and not pay for renewal. (Presto and Spotify are both paid up through March or April.)

But after switching back to Presto for my classical, I made it about a day. I am now spoiled by this Idagio service. As you guys can see from my previous comments, it took me a minute.

But now I don't want to use anything else for my main classical listening.