Sony Classical Joins Naxos Music Library!

Naxos Music Library is thrilled to announce the addition of the extensive Sony Classical catalog to the ever-growing streaming inventory available to our subscribers.  This will introduce or expand the presence in NML of a number of legendary and popular artists and conductors, including Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Pablo Casals, George Szell, Arthur Fiedler, Glenn Gould, Vladimir Horowitz, Yo-Yo Ma, Murray Perahia, Eugene Ormandy, the Philip Glass Ensemble, Leontyne Price, Arthur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern, Arturo Toscanini, and many more.  

Sony Classical is also home to many beloved film scores, including those for the Star Wars films, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Phantom of the Opera, Skyfall, Titanic, The Dark Knight, and more.   And of course, this will also make even more versions of your favorite compositions available, providing you with yet more options when selecting the perfect performance for classroom use or personal listening pleasure.   

The first round of titles (hundreds of them!) are available to stream now, with further albums added on a regular basis alongside the many titles NML adds daily.  

You can view the official press release

HERE 

Naxos Music Library is truly delighted at this opportunity to partner with Sony Classical, and we know that you will be equally excited to enjoy the new additions.  As always, Naxos Music Library strives to provide the most thorough classical music streaming service available, and at a price that will supply the most value to the subscriber.  Happy listening!

Reintroducing...Naxos Video Library!

Have you ever taken a group of students to the opera for the first time and watched as their eyes widened, their jaws dropped, and suddenly they got it?  Suddenly this art form that has captured imaginations for centuries has enchanted even more, and you wished that somehow you could bring this experience back to the classroom?

And what about the ballet?  Students can hear the music easily enough, but how often do they have the opportunity to see how it interacts with the movement of masterful dancers as they glide gracefully about a carefully lit and designed stage?  That breath that catches in the throat as the ballerina nails a massive grand jeté right at the peak of the music’s crescendo—how often do your students get to experience that?

How often do you wish that your students could be in the midst of the great orchestras of the world just to observe their tremendous technique and inspiring virtuosity in action and up close?  Do they get to watch the most skilled conductors at work to pick up valuable insight that they can then apply to their own conducting?

Believe it or not, all of this and more is available through Naxos Video Library (contact us!), which features over 1,675 full-length videos for streaming on demand as of this writing.  This ever-expanding database possesses a wonderfully diverse range of content, including:

Opera – Currently there are over 285 full-length operas available to watch, with libretti and subtitles in up to five languages for most.  The great opera composers are all represented, including Donizetti, Handel, Monteverdi, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, Verdi, and Wagner (including a number of Bayreuth Festival performances!).  Many of the classic operas are presented multiple times, allowing for comparison of productions.

Ballet – Not only are a wide variety of ballets available in full (including performances of all three Tchaikovsky classics by the Royal Ballet), but a number of films highlight specific dance groups and pay tribute to famous individuals.

Orchestra and chamber ensembles – Over 380 full-length videos portray performances by orchestras, chamber groups, choirs, and soloists.  Highlights include three cycles of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, cycles of Beethoven’s symphonies by Abbado and Karajan, and Bernstein’s Mahler symphony cycle.

Documentaries – A considerable assortment of feature-length documentary films profile composers, conductors, performers, and dancers.  Others highlight moments in music history or inspiring music education stories of today, while still more go behind the scenes of opera productions.  There is something for everyone here.

Educational – Along with a couple series of films dedicated to discussing individual symphonic works, Naxos Video Library includes a number of videos that explore periods of art history and many of the geographic and historic wonders of the world.  Also featured are the A Musical Journey series, which combines video tours of locations around Europe and Asia with classical music characteristic of those places, and a selection of complete stage productions from Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.

Naxos Video Library is an excellent resource for your music, dance, and theater programs, and it's a cost-effective way to provide a full-length film collection without having to worry about DVD purchasing, damage, or theft.  And no longer will students need to fight over the one copy available in the library; as many students can stream video simultaneously as your chosen subscription level allows.  You will also have the ability to customize film clips to compile into playlists to complement your lessons.  Curious to see what this is all about?  Contact us at any time for pricing and for a free trial!

Changes in NML and NML Jazz

“You gotta keep ‘em separated.”  These words to a certain 90’s pop punk hit that I outwardly regret knowing spring immediately to mind as I share some necessary—but good—changes coming up for Naxos Online Libraries.  (If that song is now stuck in your head, I apologize.  Maybe.  If you don’t know it…I envy you.  Maybe.)

As our databases continue to expand at an exciting rate, we have decided that now is the time to further define the unique personalities of both Naxos Music Library and NML Jazz.  As such, all jazz content in NML will be moved to NML Jazz over the next couple months, with the goal of having the transition completed by the end of October.  This will allow us to better organize our catalog for your enjoyment and ease of use.

First, the good news:  The price for NML Jazz will not change through this realignment.  That means more music for the same value.  Also, no longer will you need to search in both sites for jazzy jams to get your students (or yourself) grooving; they will all be in one place.

Second, the other good news:  While this realignment does mean NML will be losing a small percentage of content, it does not mean the growth in NML is slowing down in proportion.  Rather, it means that NML is better positioned for great things to come.  We can't tell you a whole lot just yet, but in the next month or two we will be breaking some very exciting news that will make NML even more awesome than it already is.  Seriously, we feel like parents on Christmas Eve itching to see the kids open up their presents the next morning.  So stay tuned!

So what exactly makes NML Jazz so amazing that it is worthy of being its own beast, rather than merely a supplement to NML?  As of this writing, NML Jazz features over 85,000 tracks from around 7,500 albums, and there are more than 32,000 artists credited.  With the realignment described above, these numbers will increase even further, and new albums are added every single day.

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And let us brag just a little more before signing off.  Naxos Music Library Jazz features the complete catalogs of some of the largest and most prestigious jazz labels in the world, including:

Blue Note Records – Titles from Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Grant Green, Herbie Hancock, Norah Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, Medeski Martin & Wood, Lee Morgan, Dianne Reeves, Sarah Vaughan, Cassandra Wilson, and Nancy Wilson.

Fantasy Records – Titles from Albert King, Bill Evans, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Isaac Hayes, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, and the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

Warner Jazz & EMI – Titles from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Billy Cobham, Ornette Coleman, Eddie Harris, Manhattan Transfer, Herbie Mann, Charles Mingus, and The Modern Jazz Quartet.

New labels are added every month, including the MaxJazz, Bethlehem Records, and Intakt Records catalogs this month; the 220+ labels currently included come from all over the world and represent all styles and periods of jazz history, from big band and swing to some of the most thrilling new voices of today.

As you can well see, we are quite excited about NML Jazz, and we look forward to growing and developing it even more.

Happy listening!

Changes to OCLC's MARC Records for NML

Dear libraryfolk, we hope that you have been enjoying a restful and pleasant summer.  The fall semester is not that far around the corner, however, and with it comes changes to the way OCLC will be creating and delivering records.

Beginning September 1, 2013, OCLC’s Contract Cataloging Services will begin creating WorldCat records for Naxos Music Library titles using the RDA standard.  This change is in alignment with OCLC’s decision to adopt and support the RDA standard in WorldCat overall.  There is no need for your library to make changes to your record delivery profile, and records will continue to be delivered as they are presently.

If you would like more detailed information about RDA, please click here.  The FAQs page for OCLC and Naxos Music Library here will be updated soon to include further information about the new format and the transition.  If you have a question about the change that is not answered there, you can also contact OCLC directly at oclcmetadatacatsvcs@oclc.org. 

As always, we here at Naxos Music Library are happy to serve you any way we can.  Happy listening!