Naxos Musical Subscription
One day I was looking for some music by Arvo Part. I decided to see if the music label Naxos had a website and the music available. Not only did they have a website, but I found that they had a subscription service. They have two versions: free and paid. For free you can hear 25% of any track of their library. For $20 (that's USD) per year you can hear all of the track of any of their published works. It is a deal not to be missed. If you don't know of the Naxos label, they started in the classical world and became known for inexpensive high quality recordings; and they publish a lot of different things, not just the standard repertory but many works by second and third level composers.
With the Naxos subscription you log in, choose a composer and then choose the piece you are interested in. Each composer has a caricature of them and a brief description of their life and work, then a list of their works that Naxos publishes. Here is one of the downsides, you may only choose one track at a time, if you want to hear a whole CDs worth you have to keep clicking on the next track. This isn’t so bad for a work like a Mahler or Bruckner symphony but if you are listening to some CD with many short pieces it can be annoying.
One of the great things is that Naxos publishes a lot of different kinds of music, and they have other labels (like BIS) under their umbrella. They also are publishing many historical works, books on CD, Jazz, educational information and DVDs. In the US you may not listen to many of the historical works or Jazz due to copyright concerns (thanks congress), but there is still over 5000 pieces you can listen to. Their growing body of audio books is very nice. I have listen to several Sherlock Holmes stories and they are well done.
Naxos also has a sister service called Naxos Radio where for $10 (USD) a year you get an internet radio station with several channels playing different flavors of Naxos music. I have not tried this but it does look interesting.
Naxos also has two free podcasts. One for new music and one for their audio books. They are mainly marketing efforts playing different pieces from new releases. It is a good way to sample what is coming out.
One of the great things about Naxos is discovering new composers. I recently started listening to works by Alla Pavlova (more on her later) that I discovered on Naxos. Also, if you have hear of a composer but don’t know if you would like their music it is great to go to Naxos and listen to them.
Things that would make Naxos better:
1. A playlist option where you could choose a bunch of tracks and then play them.
2. A “wishlist” option that you could add CDs to. I would love to email a link to someone when they ask “what do you want for Christmas…”
3. The ability to purchase and download music directly from Naxos. Yes, iTunes has some of their CDs but not everything.
4. A super subscription where in the same login you could choose the CDs or the Radio option.
Bottom line: 4/5 stars, a great service for the classical music lover.
Go to Naxos
With the Naxos subscription you log in, choose a composer and then choose the piece you are interested in. Each composer has a caricature of them and a brief description of their life and work, then a list of their works that Naxos publishes. Here is one of the downsides, you may only choose one track at a time, if you want to hear a whole CDs worth you have to keep clicking on the next track. This isn’t so bad for a work like a Mahler or Bruckner symphony but if you are listening to some CD with many short pieces it can be annoying.
One of the great things is that Naxos publishes a lot of different kinds of music, and they have other labels (like BIS) under their umbrella. They also are publishing many historical works, books on CD, Jazz, educational information and DVDs. In the US you may not listen to many of the historical works or Jazz due to copyright concerns (thanks congress), but there is still over 5000 pieces you can listen to. Their growing body of audio books is very nice. I have listen to several Sherlock Holmes stories and they are well done.
Naxos also has a sister service called Naxos Radio where for $10 (USD) a year you get an internet radio station with several channels playing different flavors of Naxos music. I have not tried this but it does look interesting.
Naxos also has two free podcasts. One for new music and one for their audio books. They are mainly marketing efforts playing different pieces from new releases. It is a good way to sample what is coming out.
One of the great things about Naxos is discovering new composers. I recently started listening to works by Alla Pavlova (more on her later) that I discovered on Naxos. Also, if you have hear of a composer but don’t know if you would like their music it is great to go to Naxos and listen to them.
Things that would make Naxos better:
1. A playlist option where you could choose a bunch of tracks and then play them.
2. A “wishlist” option that you could add CDs to. I would love to email a link to someone when they ask “what do you want for Christmas…”
3. The ability to purchase and download music directly from Naxos. Yes, iTunes has some of their CDs but not everything.
4. A super subscription where in the same login you could choose the CDs or the Radio option.
Bottom line: 4/5 stars, a great service for the classical music lover.
Go to Naxos
posted by William | 11:05 PM
2 Comments:
I think you might need to tell us what the minimum and maximum number of stars is...4 stars out of how many?
That would be 4 out of 5 stars.
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