Naxos is named Apple Music Curator
mainOn the face of it a breakthrough for the bottom-price label.
But it looks like no more than giving Naxos the right to present playlists from its own releases on classical-unfriendly iTunes.
Details here.
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Naxos has impressed me with its ability to find ways to grow their brand and their audience. I don’t know the success-failure rate of their many ventures, but they seem willing to think out of the box. If any company can figure out how to fit their particular product into an unfriendly format — or work to transform that format — to make it more friendly to the unique needs of classical music, Naxos might be that company. I wish them success. This genre badly needs some help in getting to new audiences and delivering its product to young classical audiences who (unlike me at 70) are less interested in CDs and DVDs and looking for digital solutions that fit their needs. Bravo, Naxos, and every best wish!
Naxos has a vast catalogue of classical music, which is probably in need of a new distribution outlet. It contains many interesting recordings of music not otherwise available, but also many classical mainstream-music recordings which were produced with low budgets and do not really have a distinctive standing. Best of Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mozart etc. was fine in the the 80s and 90s, when big boxes of CDs were sold at fairly cheap pricing to consumers so these could build up music libraries. There are also some historical recordings available, which might be of interest to collectors if this genre. For any customer who has some knowledge of the repertoire, this form of curation is of no value. The appeal to the younger generation of this elementary curation-pattern remains to be seen. Listening on a smartphone “on the go” is not the best way to hear classical music. This must happen in a live performance, which may trigger further interest and raise curiosity for listening to classical music on a streaming platform. The metadata for classical is way more complicated than for popular music, where title of the song and musician are the 2 most important criteria. Searching for Beethoven´s 5th symphony is a lot more complicated, as there are probably more than 100 recordings available, many recordings with the same conductor/orchestra etc.
Let us see what NAXOS can contribute.
More power to Naxos if they can distribute classical music through iTunes.
Your second paragraph.
Naxos is a welcome addition, but Apple historically has no clue about classical music. I remain skeptical this relationship will last.
Congratulations to Klaus Heymann and his team. For two decades at least, Naxos has not only beaten the majors whose only thought was maximizing revenues with little consideration to consumers, it has done so with by far the most innovative repertoire, often exciting recordings and a total embrace of new technologies. Bravi!