The Classical Recording Industry: Revitalized, Not Dead

Henry, as an avid record collector I agree with you these are great times to seek out new and reissued recordings. [My collection's nothing compared to yours, but I do have about 4,000 classical LPs and 2,000 CDs, and am always looking for new composers and and new performances.]

Although times are pretty bad for the recording industry, your comments here and those of others are right that the "business" is becoming less businesslike but more artist-driven and thus more artistic. How great! Time for me to buy another shelf...

In a plug, I'd just like to add that here in San Francisco, the New Century Chamber Orchestra's Music Director, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, has her own label called NSS Music. The doomer-gloomers can say what they will, but our just-released record, which is called "Together" in honor of our new partnership, is getting great reviews all over the country.

Unless you are a huge mega-pop-star, don't plan on paying your bills with cd royalties. Speaking only for myself, the purpose of making recordings is to share with the world, present and future, your 'take' on a particular composition. Unless I have something unique to say about a work, I won't record it. In the case of the Mozart Sonatas just released by E1 (Volume 1), I dared only to record the complete Mozart sonata cycle because I love these works, and in the repeats, I challenged myself to put my Mozart cap on and add embellishments in the way Mozart might have done. He was a great improvisor--I am not a jazz improvisor, but I carefully created the style and with the help of my producer, we created what we felt would best exemplify the style. As a result, what we have may be a good reason for having done the cycle. I did the same for Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' released by Naxos in June. We now have downloading, mp3s, cds, YouTube, ah, so many avenues to enjoy musical recording. It is better than ever!

Bravo!
Reissued versions of our 3 catalogues (Baroque Records of Canada, Janvs/Pirouette, and Orion Master Recordings) - some 600+ albums, can be found on ClassicsOnLine and Naxos Music Library, under the LANUI label.

I have to agree with you. I have a huge collection of LP's and CD's but I still find new and exciting things each month that I MUST have.
I hope this continues and that I will keep broadening my range of new composers and compositions.

Gene Duman

Excellent post. The new business model of leaner, meaner, and more artist-attuned labels
will mean much more consumer choice.

It's true that a certain type of recording superstar and a certain way of big-label folderol will recede a bit. In the long run, we're going to see more fascinating music produced with quality by more labels, creating huge niches of dedicated audiences for new and forgotten musical works.