Stereophile magazine gets it right with this essay on the mini-dust up and recording industry tantrum following the BBC's bold and welcome "Beethoven Experience".
Key graf:
"If downloading was the real reason the classical recording industry was on the ropes, we'd have probably heard about all of the classical P2P networks out there. We haven't, of course. In fact, the major labels have been complaining that classical music is so dead that they haven't even been able to give it away.The Beethoven Experience shows that you can give it away. We'll have to wait and see whether new listeners, now that they've been exposed to classical music, will want more of it—and if they're willing to pay for it. My guess is that they will, but perhaps not as much as the major labels would like." [emphasis mine]
Read the rest here
2 comments:
As the article points, Naxos is the best example of an evolution way that classical labels should think about.
And Naxos offers quality, not only low prices. Examples: Prokofiev's piano concertos with Kun Woo Paik or Lutoslawski's orchestral works with Antoni Wit.
True it is hard to find interesting music. I have been surprised by some of the music I've stumbled across listening to Rhapsody.
Naxos did a good job of making quality classical recordings available at fairly low prices. I think Jeno Jando's Beethoven piano sonatas are superb.
Naxos is experimenting with a mp3/online release of materials to libraries. More info is here:
http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/2321.html
Hopefully, there will be more creativity and experimentation.
Post a Comment