Spotify

[albion]

I wonder whether any other members are using Spotify to access streaming audio recordings. I was recommended to it by a friend and have signed up for £4.99 per month for unlimited listening. Alternatively, you can currently get 20 hours per month for free but you have to contend with randomly-placed audio advertisements which pop up between tracks.

The range of the catalogue available is great, and not just 'mainstream' (although there is a lot of the standard repertoire that I would like to explore in alternative performances): for example all of Serebrier's Glazunov recordings on Warner, the Cipriani Potter disc from Classico (not included in the recent budget-price box reissue), all volumes of the Suppe overtures series on Marco Polo, the new Stanford chamber music disc (with Piano Quartet No.2) from Naxos, a seemingly limitless ranger of recordings of Ziehrer, both the Tudor and the Marco Polo Raff series, Parry piano music played by Peter Jacobs on a deleted Priory disc, a recent Augsbourg Theatre performance of Schreker's Der Ferne Klang, etc., etc.

I've just been out and upgraded the computer speakers!

[britishcomposer]

As far as I know this service isn't available in Germany. But there is a similar thing called simfy. Fine indeed for people who cannot afford to buy every CD (like me). Moreover this helps to find out if something fits you or not before buying.