“Classical music streaming service IDAGIO has released an ad-supported free tier as part of its efforts to make the hard-to-pigeonhole genre more accessible. IDAGIO Free launches today in 190 countries, featuring 2 million recordings,” writes Marc Schneider in Tuesday’s (11/12) Billboard.com. “The Berlin-based startup says the free tier will prominently feature its ‘Mood Player,’ which generates a playlist based on a person’s selected mood, as well as playlists curated by staff or well-known artists, including Lang Lang. There are also radio stations specific to composers and artists. The free version is available on the web, as well as iOS and Android devices…. IDAGIO is geared specifically to audiophile classical listeners, offering lossless audio (on its premium tiers only) and search function and filters tailor-made for the genre, allowing users to compare multiple recordings. The service, which recently released a simplified version of its app for the Apple Watch, says its approach to compensating rights holders is geared specifically to the genre. ‘We believe in fair compensation,’ the company says … ‘Classical music compositions may strongly vary in length, therefore we pay per second of playback, instead of per play.’ ” Idagio classical music streaming service launched in 2015.

Posted November 18, 2019