Idagio is a music streaming service specifically designed for classical music listeners.
Unlike more general streaming platforms that struggle with classical music organization, Idagio was built from the ground up to properly catalog and present classical compositions with their unique attributes like conductor, composer, orchestra, and movement structure.
With over 2.5 million tracks and growing, it delivers high-quality audio specifically optimized for the nuances of classical recordings.
In this article, I’ll show you how to get started with Idagio, how the 14-day free trial works, and the benefits of subscribing to this classical music streaming platform.
What You Get with an Idagio Free Trial
Besides a free trial, Idagio also has a free plan that you can sign up and start listening.
The free plan is somewhat limited though and you cannot listen to music on-demand. You can unlock more benefits by signing up to one of the three paid plans available, starting with a 14-day free trial.
Here are some of the benefits you get when you activate an Idagio free trial.
- High-definition audio streaming (up to 16-bit FLAC quality)
- Advanced classical music search (by composer, conductor, ensemble, soloist)
- Expertly curated playlists and collections
- Personalized recommendations based on your listening habits
- Offline listening on mobile
- Ad-free experience
- Exclusive live concerts and recordings
For casual listeners, curated playlists will give you a guided experience, allowing you to discover composers and recording. Idagio conveniently has features for classical music exploration.
For classical aficionados, you’ll be able to precisely filter by period, ensemble, and instrument. And you’ll be able to compare different recordings of the same composition.
Things To Look Out For
A free trial will allow you to get the full experience from one of the paid plans. If you’re considering an Idagio free trial, there are a few things you’ll need to keep in mind.
Highest Quality Audio (Premium Audio tier)
Although all three plans offer free trials, you’ll experience the highest audio quality of the Premium Audio and the Premium Audio + Video tiers.
The Basic plan will give you high quality MP3/AAC 320kbps audio while on the Premium plans, you’ll get lossless audio quality (FLAC 16-bit 44.1 kHz).
Limited Non-Classical Catalogue
Idagio was made for lovers of classical music and doesn’t have much else in terms of non-classical music catalogue.
If you plan on listening to other genres, you’ll need another music app like Spotify, Tidal or Amazon Music Unlimited. These services are more general in nature and include classical music but not as extensive as Idagio.
How To Get The Most Out of Your Idagio Free Trial
Two weeks of free Idagio service is a lot of time to evaluate the service to see if you would like to continue with a paid subscription.
To get the most out of your free trial, here are some useful tips to follow over the 14-day period.
Signing Up For an Idagio Free Trial
Ready to get started with Idagio?
The sign up process is straight-forward and easy. Start by visiting the Idagio website or downloading the app. I’m doing this free trial on desktop so the steps below are from the Idagio website.
1. Click Start Free Trial
Find a button like “14 days free” or “Start free trial” and click to begin the sign up process.
2. Create your account
Fill out the form to create your account. You’ll be asked for a username (this is optional so you don’t have to provide one now), your email address and a password so that you can log in.
Then just click the “Create Account” button to go to the next step.
Alternatively, you can skip the form and authenticate with your Apple id.
3. Choose an Idagio plan
After signing up, you’ll be asked to pick one of Idagio’s plans. The plan you choose will be automatically billed after your 14-day free trial period expires.
According to Idagio, the Premium Audio plan for $12.99/month is their most popular plan. It has the highest quality audio so that’s the plan that I decided to free trial as well.
If you’re a student, you can choose that option below the continue button so you can get 50% off any of the available plans.
Click continue to go to the next step.
4. Enter payment information
After choosing a plan, you’ll need to enter payment info so that your subscription will automatically continue after the trial expires.
Idagio will not charge your card at this point. You can also cancel at any time to avoid being billed. You will still be able to listen to Idagio until your free trial period is up.
Unfortunately, there is no PayPal option available so you’ll have to use a credit or debit card to add payment.
5. Personalize your experience
After payment, you’re ready to go. You can now choose your favorite composers and genres to personalize your experience.
Then start exploring the platform. Setting up your account takes less than 5 minutes.
What I Think About Idagio
The best thing about Idagio is having a music streaming service dedicated to only classical music.
Subscribers will appreciate the clean, minimalist interface and the intuitive navigation designed for classical music structure. You can browse by composers, performers, periods, genres, and instruments.
Having classical-oriented metadata also allows users to refine their searches in a way that isn’t practical with more general music streaming services.
Sound quality is also another plus with Idagio offering up to lossless quality (FLAC 16-bit 44.1 kHz). You probably wouldn’t notice the difference anyway, unless you’re using a great pair of quality headphones.
Idagio also offers mobile apps for Apple and Android devices. Both are stable, regularly updated and well-designed. You can expect the same quality experience as the website plus more options like downloads for offline listening.
In terms of customer support, you can expect to hear back within 24 hours via email if you have an issue.
Idagio Compared To…
Idagio sets the bar for classical music streaming and has a more extensive catalogue than most other services. It’s the go to app for classical music lovers.
So how do they compare to other music services that do offer classical music that you might have considered?
Idagio vs Spotify
Spotify has one of the largest user-base with over 675 million monthly listeners. While they carry classical music as one of their genres, Idagio offers superior classical music organization and search.
Additionally, Spotify compresses audio files for storage reasons and for ease of streaming. Idagio offers better sound quality since you have the option to stream in lossless audio, meaning the sound is more or less identical to the original source recording.
On the other hand, Idagio lacks Spotify’s social features and broader genre coverage which may or may not be a plus depending on the user.
Idagio vs. Apple Music Classical
Apple Music Classical inherited their classical music catalogue from the purchase of another classical music streaming service called Primephonic. They now offer it as an addon service with it’s own app to deal with the nuances of classical music discovery and search.
Idagio has a more intuitive interface and functions as a standalone service, while Apple Music Classical offers integration with the broader Apple Music ecosystem and comes included in Apple Music subscriptions.
This means, you can subscribe to Apple Music if you want more than just classical music and you’d still have access to millions of songs but you’d still need two separate apps.
Idagio Pricing After Free Trial
When you take the free trial, you get to choose the plan you would like to subscribe to during the signup process. However, you can change your plan at any time.
Idagio has three paid plans and also a free tier if you decide that you do not want to continue with a subscription.
Basic Audio
The Basic Audio plan is the entry level plan and it costs just $9.99/month. On this plan, you get all the core features of Idagio except for the lossless audio quality reserved for the Premium plans.
- Over 2 million tracks plus exclusive releases
- Ad-free listening
- Curated recommendations and weekly mixes
- Offline playback on mobile
- On-demand playback
There is no annual billing available to you’ll have to pay monthly for this plan.
Premium Audio
The Premium Audio plan has everything that the Basic Audio plan has but adds higher quality sound with lossless audio for listeners who want the quality to be closer to what the source recording sounded like.
For this privilege, you’ll pay $12.99/month. There is also no annual billing for this plan.
Premium Audio + Video
The video addon to Premium Audio lets to watch videos which includes concerts, opera, and dance. There is also a dedicated tvOS app so that you can watch on your television for the ultimate classical experience.
One additional benefit this tier brings are the free tickets you’ll get for any Idagio concerts as long as you’re a member.
This tier costs $29.99 per month when billed monthly and $199/year with annual billing.
For most people, the Basic Audio plan should be enough but the Premium Audio plans do have their pros as well.
How To Cancel Idagio Free Trial
If you decide during your trial that you don’t want to continue with an Idagio subscription, you can cancel at any time to avoid being billed.
You’ll be able to listen for the remaining time on your trial and can always resubscribe at any time.
Here’s how to cancel Idagio during your free trial or even when you have a subscription.
- Log into your Idagio account on the website (not possible to cancel in the app).
- Click on the three lines in the top right corner and choose “Settings”.
- Under “Subscription”, you should see your current subscription. Click “Cancel subscription” and complete the flow.
- Confirm cancellation when prompted.
Important: Cancel at least 24 hours before your trial ends to avoid being charged. Your access continues until the trial period ends even after cancellation.
Try Idagio For Free
If you absolutely love classical music, Idagio’s free trial is definitely worth your time.
The platform’s dedicated approach to classical music discovery, superior audio quality, and thoughtful curation make it stand out from general streaming services.
Start your 14-day free trial today and experience classical music the way it was meant to be heard.
