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The Nordic Sound and Trondheim Solistene: Divertimenti are two recent purchases
A <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR201001... article</A> details the lackluster sales of classical music discs. Do you buy classical music?
For about two years now, I have really been into opera. My addiction has been inpired by broadcasts of live Met performances on HDTV to remote locations, one of which is a 15-minute ride from my home. So I have been building an opera library and spending quite a bit of money. MP3s and and Internet downloads hold no attraction for me. For me therefore, it is CDs and LPs only!
The situation is a little complicated. I listen to classical music. But my preferred playback medium is vinyl. That limits me to performances from the 1960s and '70s. OTOH, there are plenty of works that do not have audiophile-grade recordings from that era, so there is plenty of room for modern performances in today's marketplace. Another problem is that many/most classical music lovers have all of the Beethoven, Mozart, etc, that they really need. So yet another Beethoven cycle isn't going to sell much, especially if one of von Karajan's cycles is still considered the best. I think that it has not helped that classical music has been mostly marketed to the crossover crowd, which is never going to buy more than a few discs. Also, I would like to register my vote firmly against depending on modern compositions. I realize that someone involved with classical music on a daily basis can get bored at some point, but that is not the case with most music lovers. These points may paint a bleak picture, but it means that there are windows of opportunity for those willing to do business a bit differently. The SFS Mahler recordings are one example. Also, the audiophile market could be a great source of revenue from hi-rez recordings. While SACD is barely treading water, many audiophiles have at least some interest in building a music server. A steady stream of new hi-rez classical titles could be quite successful.
That piece in the Washington Post was an eye-opener. This country, if those numbers are accurate, puts a lot of money into maintaining classical music. They've got to find a way to sell better. Is there creativity in the market for sales? I doubt it. I miss the knowledgeable staff at Tower Records, by the way. We've got people who know what they're talking about maintaining the little classical section at the Politics & Prose bookstore, the best in Washington, by far.
Classical music is music that was written to sound good without any modern "studio magic," It relies purely on the natural acoustic magic of real instruments and nice performance spaces. I love being able to bring part of that experience home.
Classical music, from chamber to opera, is about all I buy. Amazon usually sends me to used stores for obscure albums at a lower price, so I doubt much of what I buy ends up recorded by manufacturers—with the perpetual exception of Naxos, the good guys!
I clicked "Yes, quite a bit," but maybe it should have been "What is classical music?" Groups like Kronos Quartet are changing the definition of classical music to include "world music," ie beyond the traditional precincts of Europe, Russia, and North America. I buy about 10 CDs or downloads of traditional European-based classical music per month.
I have found downloads to have either very poor sound quality or they are horribly inconvenient (ie, have to be played through a computer/server—a horrible idea if you know anything about electronics). So, discs (CDs, SACDs, etc) are the only way to go if I don't want to sacrifice sound quality.
I buy a lot of different music. Thing is, if you go to a classical music concert, the only people who don't have gray hair are music majors. Until we get a new generation of listeners, sales are going to drop as the listeners do.