Online Baroque music

[micrologus]

Hope you'll like this site

http://baroque247.com/

[Philidor]

[haydnguy]

Thanks for that link, micorologus. I know Spotty will like that one.

[The Sparrow]

But...its not free, and I'm a cheapo!

[haydnguy]

Your right. With all the free listening around, I assumed it was.

[Baroque247 Stationmaster]

The debate over whether streaming music should be free or paid is old as music itself. I found the responses to the original post here intriguing, and as a muscian, producer, and broadcaster for 35 years of immediate interest. For myself and others on the "Baroque 24/7" team this is our bread and butter.

Yes, there is a lot of good free streaming out there, but it comes with some serious drawbacks, such as in-line advertising, popups, low quality, limited logons, and small repetitive libraries. You pretty much get what you pay for.

In my past 6 years as a classical broadcaster on Live365 (http://www.live365.com/stations/compaxx ) I've offered my 20,000 listeners there a choice of either going with this 'free' model, or voluntarily subscribing for a modest fee ($5/monthly). I found that those who listen daily for a minimum of 90 minutes over the course of a month or so preferred to subscribe. Overall the voluntary subscription rate has been over 30% for those wishing an enduring premium service. Most of my subscription listeners are logged in at least 8 hours daily, 5-7 days a week.

Baroque247.com is my response to this audience of dedicated ay-long listeners. "Baroque 24/7" has the most extensive collection of Baroque music anywhere online, is entirely ad-free, of the highest possible audio quality, and has guarranteed logons for all listeners at multiple bandwidths.

For those who nonetheless wish a totally cost-free stream, we do provide this on Live365. "Baroque 24/7" also has a totally free listening room available on our website, and I invite all here to stop in and enjoy our posts there.

Thank you for writing about us here,
Tuvia Wertheim, "Baroque 24/7" Stationmaster

[Philidor]

Hi Tuvia, welcome to brightcecilia. Thanks for taking the trouble to come over and explain.

Originally Posted by Baroque247 Stationmaster

Most of my subscription listeners are logged in at least 8 hours daily, 5-7 days a week.

I guess that's the difference -- people who want to listen to a discrete work and those who want baroque music on in the background all day. I'd expect to pay for the latter.

Originally Posted by Baroque247 Stationmaster

"Baroque 24/7" also has a totally free listening room available on our website, and I invite all here to stop in and enjoy our posts there.

Thank you. I've tried it and it's great.

Originally Posted by Baroque247 Stationmaster

The debate over whether streaming music should be free or paid is old as music itself.

Not quite.


Phil

[haydnguy]

I agree with Phil. I didn't want to leave the impression that I won't pay for my music, because I certainly do.

To give an example, I just finished several days of trying out Rhapsody (the online music service), but decided instead on Naxos. The reason was that Naxos is geared toward the classical music lover whereas Rhapsody is really mainly for popular music fans.

I will be paying a yearly fee to Naxos for the service, however I get to choose what I listen to and when. I tend to listen to specific pieces or search by composer.

[Baroque247 Stationmaster]

HaydnGuy: Kudos for supporting the artists. I've also tried to combine the best of streaming radio and searchable on-demand playback on my site, with both options available. However, unlike Naxos, I only play full feature-length recordings (Naxos is pretty heavy on excerpts). Also, there's a noticable difference in playback quality, which is important to my listeners.

I have split between Baroque (available on baroque247.com) and symphonic/orchestral (available for free on wccb-classical-fm.com) as it's a different audience and ambience.

Have a great weekend,
Tuvia Wertheim, "Baroque 24/7" Stationmaster

[haydnguy]

Baroque247 StationMaster,

I tried to click on your join link on your home page, and I initially got a blank screen in the right hand pane when I used Firefox (which I normally use). I thought it might be because I was using Firefox so I tried again to click the Join link in Internet Explorer 7 and I got a "page not found" in the right hand pane.

Thanks for the explanation of your site and I will certain take a closer look. (I haven't joined Naxos yet!)