Free music download (warning: classical)

BBC Radio 3 is currently running "The Beethoven Experience." As part of it they are making available for a limited period mp3 files of the BBC Philharmonic perfoming the nine Beethoven symphonies. If you're into that type of thing, check it out.

Well, if you have to listen to classical music, it's hardly free, is it?

Kidding! I like a few classical pieces, though I don't keep up enough to know which ones they are...

Oh wow, that's very cool.

My main qualm with both iTunes and Napster is a very poor selection of classical music. Obviously the targeted demographic probably isn't interested in that genre, but if they're adding a few thousand tracks a day, they *could* throw a few decent classical recordings in there, and not just those shitty compilations.

Now granted I could probably just google this myself, but anyone know of other music services that have a better classical library?

I'm going to download all this when I get home.

I have the 9th and the 6th already, but none of the others, so this is all good.

In my opinion the classical selections on all of them suck. iTunes may be the best of the bunch. They have some things from the London and Deutsche Grammophon labels that are quite nice, but they don't have enough breadth to be really attractive to somebody picky enough to want specific things. It's partly demand & demographics, and partly the labels. Some smaller labels (for example Koch and Naxos) have been very aggressive about getting their stuff online. If you're looking for hot current recordings (say Yo-Yo Ma or Hilary Hahn, both of whom are fabulous, don't get me wrong), you're more likely to find them. If you're looking for George Szell conducting the Brahms Symphonies you can get them for about $20 or $25 on 3 CDs. If they were on iTunes they'd probably be $9.99 per disc--why wouldn't you just buy the CDs and rip them? Hell, I paid $2.49--including shipping--for this. There are just too many excellent budget-priced and used classical CDs available to make downloading make a lot of sense. (Some people would say that's a big reason that new classical recordings of any stripe don't make sense, but that a different argument.)

Steve, if you can get the Deutsche Grammophon recording of James Levine and the Chicago Symphony's Carmina Burana. Go for it.

this is very cool.

I have a good selection of classical music. If I can get it ontp my hard drive, I'll share it with you. And very few compilations!

Ooops....

Did anybody snag the Symphony #3 that you'd be willing to share? For some reason I managed to save mine in the temp folder, and it's toast now.

Apparently it was successful. But before you click on the below link, why don't you just take a minute to predict the reaction of those in the recording industry to this little experiment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1532890,00.html

I managed to snag 8 out of 9 (I wasn't paying attention and missed the 6th), so a good haul altogether.

I just sent you a PM.
I got all 9. I've been listening to them at work for a while.

Funny thing is, halfway through the series, my wife gave me the complete set of Beethoven's 9 symphonies on CD as a father's day present. Different performances, so they sound different, but still, it's funny.

1.2m for beethoven vs 200k for bono may also say something about the existing saturation levels of bono and beethoven before the experiment was launched. Why download a track you already have?

BigV wrote:

Why download a track you already have?

Well I have complete Beethoven symphony sets by George Szell, Herbert von Karajan, Roger Norrington, and Christopher Hogwood. So this one is number 5 . . .

SD--

I think I was answering a question that I don't see here, strangely enough. Y'all don't hear those voices, do ya?? Anyhoo. I think the question went something like: Why is there a download rate of 1.2million for Beethoven and only 200 thousand for a Bono track for the same period. My point was that perhaps Bono's lower download numbers represent a higher saturation level already present in the online audience, and why would you download a Bono track you already had? And correspondingly, fewer people may have had the Beethoven music already, so the download, the free download let them add to their collection.

Carry on.