Classic FM has launched a download service, and guess what? It’s offering mp3s using eMusic as their partner. This is a smart move, and I might even give the service a bit of a go. But a couple of things:
1) They really should be shouting a bit more about the fact that they’re offering mp3s. This means that their tracks are available to all iPod and wma format players.
2) The “songs” model really doesn’t work for classical music. That’s why even the iTunes music store is pretty hopeless for classical music. They’re offering a 50 download trial, but they do talk an awful lot about “songs”. Sometimes a piece may last a very short time – Chopin’s Minute Waltz, for example, although it actually lasts 90 seconds to two minutes – and others last a very long time – Symphony No. 7 by Sibelius is a single movement, although CDs break up that movement into different sections.
Still, they encode their mp3s at 192VBR which really isn’t bad. I wonder how it’s doing?
[UPDATE] Well, I’ve decided to give the Classic FM/eMusic thing a bit of a go, since I seem to be able to get fifty downloads free in the first fortnight before I have to pay.
A couple of things to note immediately.
First, the Classic FM offer isn’t really much of one. It leads you to a bespoke set of Classic FM pages hosted on eMusic, but it’s very easy for you to lose them, and never find them again. And the fifty free downloads is available to all. Still, I don’t begrudge them trying it.
Secondly, the classical range is relatively limited. Naxos has by far the most representation, and given that they charge around £5.99, the savings beyond a CD are good, but aren’t stupendous. The monthly £8.99 (the lowest subscription level if I stay with the service) would get me about one and a bit CDs in the real-world, but around 4-5 discs worth online. Not to be sniffed at though, and much better than I’d manage with iTunes.
Providentially, a “CD of the month” email dropped into my inbox from Naxos minutes after signing up, so I downloaded John Adams’ Violin Concerto. Then another classical email arrived, this time from EMI, advertising their Simon Rattle/Berlin Philhamonic recording of The Planets by Holst (also including Colin Matthew’s Pluto, which, as we all know, is no longer a planet). Sadly, this isn’t available on the service.
From the music I’ve heard so far, the quality’s excellent and I’ve no complaints. My reservations about having a digital only music collection remain, but I may stick with the service for a little. And of course, the fifty downloads are not limited to classical music, but the whole of eMusic.
Oh, and I did “buy” the LSO Live version of the Sibelius Symphonies 3 & 7. Symphony No. 7 is a single 22.5 minute track counting as one download…