Wall Me Do (1987). Carl Stone

Ben from Boston recommends the contemporary classical station on live365. So far, it's a little conservative for my taste -- Stravinsky and Englund. Let's see what else shows up.

While we wait, classical recording labels are complaining about the BBC's Beethoven downloads:

This week the BBC will announce there have been more than a million downloads of the symphonies during the month-long scheme. But the initiative has infuriated the bosses of leading classical record companies who argue the offer undermines the value of music and that any further offers would be unfair competition.

While clearly this is competition, explain to me again why it "undermines the value of music."  I scan, more or less, every blog with the phrase "classical music" and I saw more interest in the BBC Beethoven downloads than any other specific classical music topic since I started, usually from bloggers who were apparently not devotees of classical music. The article goes on to quote someone from Naxos who says:

You are also leading the public to think that it is fine to download and own these files for nothing.

Oh, I see. Even though the Naxos business model torpedoes "premium" classical labels, when something threatens Naxos, it is unacceptable.

Back to Live365, the stream now reports:

Broadcast unavailable.  "#1312526" is not broadcasting on our system at the moment.  Please try again later.

Lack of reliable streaming is why 80% of my listening is via MP3s on my iPod. Presumably, all those Beethovem downloaders also see value in the convenience of having their own copies of the music.

Ok, let's try live365's Iridian Radio. They are playing Carl Stone's Wall Me Do followed by Autechre's Tapr. Much better. For the record, I happen to own both the Carl Stone Four Pieces and Autechre Draft 7:30 CDs, although it might take awhile for me to locate them so kudos to Iridian Radio for playing this music.

City of Sound on the BBC Beethoven experience:

Lots of extremely interesting questions continue to be raised by the success of our trials - from distribution to commercial policy, from music strategies to on-demand radio, from marketing to navigation and so on - and we're feeding a lot of the learning and creative ideas right into the heart of the various bits of strategic and tactical BBC work going on at the moment.

BBC as innovators. Hmm...

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"Unheard Beethoven" MIDI files here. Carl Stone's MP3 page here. Autechre official streams here.

Comments

[Ben from Boston]

Hello there! Glad to see a fellow contemporary classical music fan! Drop me a line, we can chat if you'd like....good setup you got here, and thanks for checking out my radio suggestion ;) I am new to this 'streaming radio' thing, so....I am still trying to find what's out there....well, keep up the good work!
-Ben