Today's New York Times reports yet another newcomer in the classical download fray (although "newcomer" is perhaps not the right word):
Gramophone — the leading classical music magazine in the world, 85 years old and based in London — plans to allow readers to buy CDs and downloads from its Web site. This means that it may profit from recordings on which it is passing critical judgment.
The plans are part of a broad expansion of Gramophone’s online presence. In the first phase, expected by the end of the summer, it will make its entire archive, including some 100,000 recording reviews and articles, available free.
By early next year the magazine’s editors and owner say, readers will be able to shop from the Web site. Gramophone will collect a commission on each sale, said Michael Heseltine, the chairman of its parent company, Haymarket Media Group. Haymarket, which owns about 100 magazines, has roughly $500 million in annual revenues.
The principal theme of the piece is conflict of interest. There's an unfortunate quote ("completing the food chain" - whose food chain exactly?). But Gramophone is given an opportunity to point out the "huge Chinese wall" that sits between its independent-minded freelance reviewers and the business side of the magazine, and at least the chairman seems to realise that compromised reviews will damage the magazine's reputation.
Of more immediate interest is the idea of the entire archive of the magazine's print content being freely available. Very attractive.
And I have to admit that – given the inadequacy of the cataloguing and searching for classical music in iTunes, Amazon, and many of the other download sites that also offer this repertoire – it's nice to see another specialist in this realm, even if they are reviewing the stuff they sell.