I've just signed up to Idagio's 6-months free offer and downloaded the Android app, and have a couple of immediate questions.
The first thing I see is the Discover page with Featured New Albums. The first of these looks intriguing - Bach Matthäus Passion - but I can't see who the performers are. If I follow the link all I see is a small image of the album cover and a list of tracks. How do I find out who the performers are?
How do I view booklets? Having looked at a few albums I've not seen any clues.
I've just signed up to Idagio's 6-months free offer and downloaded the Android app, and have a couple of immediate questions.
The first thing I see is the Discover page with Featured New Albums. The first of these looks intriguing - Bach Matthäus Passion - but I can't see who the performers are. If I follow the link all I see is a small image of the album cover and a list of tracks. How do I find out who the performers are?
How do I view booklets? Having looked at a few albums I've not seen any clues.
I also signed up for the 6 month free offer and from my somewhat limited use of Idagio, I'm not sure if they offer a way (beyond the cover art and the CD booklet) to see who the performers are as a separate set of information, within the app.
As for the booklet, I see a "View Booklet" link at the top of the page of the album you mention, when I view it in Idagio's desktop app for Macs. (See screenshot below-- you may need to click on it to see full-size). When I click on it, it opens the booklet as a PDF within a web-browser. A bit clunky, but it works.
I'm not sure if the same "View Booklet" option is there in the Android mobile app.
I should note that the "View Booklet" option doesn't appear to be available for all albums. I just looked at a few others-- and some have it, and some don't. My guess is that whether they can show the booklet or not depends on their contract with the specific label that released it?
FYI: I downloaded the Idagio mobile app on my android phone and looked at the same Bach album-- and I do *NOT* see a "View Booklet" option there.
So, this option may only be available using the desktop app...
opens the booklet as a PDF within a web-browser
Thanks for this hint. I've signed in to the website in the browser on my phone and this answers both my questions:
- I can zoom in to magnify the image of the album cover and read who the performers are
- there is a link to the booklet
I like the fact that the booklet opens as a PDF in a separate app. The ability to do this was a feature that I had suggested for Primephonic. It means I can choose which app to use and therefore navigate around the document and zoom in and out as with any other PDF. Also it's easy to toggle between the booklet and the music player display. Primephonic's way of displaying booklets within the app was very limiting.
I'm not sure if the same "View Booklet" option is there in the Android mobile app.
By all accounts Idagio functions in a very similar way on the web browser and Apple apps, but unfortunately quite a lot of the functionality is missing on the Android app. So, on Android the search function is much more basic and sadly, to date, there do not appear to be any booklets.
I cannot begin to imagine why this should be so, and so far there’s been no evidence that the Idagio app on Android is catching up with Idagio on any other platform 😕
[edit: good to hear that the web browser version is working well for you, though!]
I've now remembered that the same trick was possible with Primephonic. The browser view allowed the booklet to be displayed in a PDF viewer.
It should be very easy to have a link within the app to do the same.
@jen This is so silly of Idagio. With Apple swallowing Primephonic and presumably focusing first on an iOS app (if they do anything), Idagio should be making sure its app benefits Android users, who might well get left behind otherwise.
On another topic, I was disappointed that the hoped-for announcement from Apple about a classical music app didn't eventuate. I continue to live in hope.
Idagio should be making sure its app benefits Android users, who might well get left behind otherwise.
I agree entirely. This has led to the bizarre situation where, typically, Android users have been better served by Apple Music and Apple users (like myself) better served by Idagio. How does that make any sense 🤷🏻♀️
And yes, Apple’s silence on the much anticipated Apple Classical app was very disappointing. I too live in hope. If the Presto survey that @Clive and others have been discussing is anything to go by, perhaps Presto Music will get there first?!
@capriccio It is 11 months now since Apple plucked Primephonic from our garden of Eden, leaving us to wallow in the hellish mediocrity of the classical music streaming landscape. I held on to a subscription to Apple Music, thinking the re-packaged Primephonic would be offered to current subscribers at a reduced rate, but this is now beyond frustrating. The weekly personalized playlists offered by Primephonic were vastly superior to those offered by IDAGIO and by Apple & Tidal. Oh well, patience, patience, F# patience🤬🫣🤣
@eldarboy I am oh so with you on this! I fear the longer the wait, the less likely we will see something delightful or even merely satisfactory from Apple. It is a tragedy that these tech giants thrust beautiful small companies into their maws and let them disappear down their gullets.
I still have an Idagio subscription and I have an Apple one merely because it's bundled with other Apple services I want.
I shall cling to hope for another six months.
This is the most recent info (aka "rumour") I've been able to find about Apple Classical:
Many people, myself included, expected Apple Classical to be announced last Monday. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and to be honest, I have no idea why. The software is ready, and all of my sources assumed that we would see Apple Classical at this year’s WWDC, but I guess that’s not the case. I asked my software sources what they thought about it, and, more importantly, when Apple Classical will be announced. As far as they are concerned, Apple Classical is ready, and if Apple decides not to announce it during WWDC, it will most likely come out as a press release sometime this year. Let us hope it will be announced as soon as possible.
"WWDC" is the Apple World Wide Developers' Conference, which was held in early June.
The good part is that, from all accounts, the software is ready. The bad part is that it's not available.
