Archive July 2005
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July 31, 2005
Another archive added
A unique archive has opened on the internet last week. Dutch national broadcasting organization NCRV has put a website online that will eventually open up their entire history with recording of organ concerts. Even if you are not an organ geek, this website has some unique recordings to offer (like Jean Langlais playing his own music). I can tell, since I am the editor for this website and I gained a lot of my repertoire knowledge only during the last couple of months: it has opened my eyes!
At the moment the amount of recordings is limited, but it will grow on a weekly basis.
The site is set up pretty straight forward, so even if you don't read dutch you should be able to navigate your way around.
Posted by Renske at 13:47 UTC | permanent link
July 22, 2005
Beethoven beats Bono
Andrew Dickson wrote an article on his blog in The Guardian about 1.4 million downloads within a week for all Beethoven symphonies compared with 20.000 downloads for Bono's version of St. Pepper in the iTunes Music Store (iTMS). Although the two aren't really compareble (read the article) it is interesting stuff.
The amount of downloadble classical or contemporay music is appalling. I search for it regularly and I do find music, but it is limited never the less. And with iTMS as a benchmark for the moment we have to fear the worst: they offer only fraction of classical music compared to the more popular genres and the way of finding your way around is inadequate.
The prejudice against people like me is that we aren't in to computers and internet. I know some people for whom this is true. But I know more people who are fully aware of what developments are taking place and where it might lead (see my last week's entry).
The major labels are only interested in peak sales, which is kind of stupid, because the large profit is to be gained in the long tail.
This short eyed approach induced by salesexecutives who know all about numbers and profitmargins and little about culture leaves all of us with lack of sufficient music to choose from. For them it is still shelve space that counts, where harddisk space, bandwith and equipment that is easy to handle for non-techies would be more appropriate.
In the meantime the BBC Beethoven downloads show people are interested. I am curious what the BBC will come with next on BBC3 and the internet.
Posted by Renske at 07:36 UTC | permanent link
July 13, 2005
The age of availability
The internet is a resource that never ceases to amaze me. With time more and more gobbledewoggle is added and at the same time quality content finds it way as well.
One of my favorite sources has become the Internet Archive that is rapidly expanding. Apart from all kinds of film and video content this archive has a large audio section. Anyone interested in vintage music should take a look here. The amount of classical music isn't overwhelming, yet, but if you're interested in Enrico Caruso just take your pick. It is all there for us to listen to.
With Google planning and implementing all kinds of fancy stuff and the BBC at the verge of opening their archives to the public we all experience the rise of the age of availability.
And being the archive addict I am, I just can't wait for the process to speed up just a little more.
Posted by Renske at 14:52 UTC | permanent link
July 06, 2005
Cutting edge from Ireland
Contemporary music composers usually don't have the hippest image, but the way the Irish Contemporary Music Center is serving them is about to change that.
Since last week Apple's iTunes is capable of serving podcasts, making it easier than ever for the general audience to listen to audioblogs (or downloadable radioprograms). Browsing through the list of padcasts in iTunes I came a across the podcast by the CMC containing an interview with the composer of the month Donnacha Dennehy. Visiting the CMC's website I discovered they also have some video fragments of this interview.
Although the recording quality of the interview can be improved, the CMC made me discover a small part of Irish culture on my iPod while I was commuting to my Dutch office.
For this I want to make the CMC a great compliment!
Posted by Renske at 14:19 UTC | permanent link