Music Online

New music content added

This was a big week for our music products: we've added a lot of content to four different collections!

• 1,837 pages of content have been added to Classical Music Reference Library, representing four titles from Princeton University Press (if this month's issue of Music Media Monthly got you in a Schoenberg mood, you're in luck: one of those titles is Schoenberg and His World).
• 28 videos have been added to Dance in Video, with styles ranging from baroque to hip-hop. Dance in Video now contains 275 hours of video from 314 different titles.
• 18 new videos have been added to Opera in Video, including a number of performances from the Royal Opera House and several documentaries. The collection now contains 174 videos spanning 488 hours. 
• The biggest news of all: Classical Scores Library is now complete! The new content added to the collection (from composers like Girolamo Frescobaldi, Antonio Vivaldi, and Diana Blom) puts it at 400,000 pages of sheet music.

For more information about any of our music and performing arts collections, or to request a free trial or price quote for your library, email sales@alexanderstreet.com.

November issue of Music Media Monthly is live

The November issue of Music Media Monthly is now live at http://musicmediamonthly.com. This month's issue covers a delightful range of material. Videos reviewed include the documentary André Previn: A Bridge Between Two Worlds, one-act operas Der Zwerg and Der zerbrochene Krug, and Little Women. The sound recordings column contains reviews of albums by Brian Eno, Steven Page, a long out of print Nyabinghi collection produced by Keith Richards, and an examination of the Protestant Reformation through music. This month's book reviews include a murder mystery by Gerald Elias and Richard Taruskin's latest collection of essays, and the Web site column reveals a treasure trove hidden in the Internet Archive.

Music Media Monthly is your guide to the best music-related books, videos, Web sites, and recordings. Check out the November issue now, and be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed, email notification, or bookmark the site. We also encourage you to leave feedback for the editor and authors.

Dance in Video continues to grow

We've just added 18 new videos to Dance in Video, increasing the total to 278 videos. The newly added content includes material from the Alive & Kicking series; performances by the Paris Opera Ballet, Berlin State Ballet, The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Nederlans Dans Theater, and Dutch National Ballet; documentaries on Alwin Nikolais and George Balanchine; and tap instructional videos.

Dance in Video is available to libraries and academic institutions worldwide. For more information, or to request a free trial or price quote, please contact sales@alexanderstreet.com.

August issue of Music Media Monthly is live

The August issue of Music Media Monthly is now live at http://musicmediamonthly.com. This month's issue features something for everyone. Videos reviewed include Falstaff, Aida, and Lulu, and the sound recordings column contains reviews of albums by Lily Storm, Dejah Léger, and Roots Manuva. This month's book reviews focus on American classical composers, and the Web site column is devoted to the Sacred Steel tradition.

Music Media Monthly is your guide to the best music-related books, videos, Web sites, and recordings. Check out the August issue now, and be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed, email notification, or bookmark the site. We also encourage you to leave feedback for the editor and authors.

More new music content!

Just when you thought we were done adding content to Music Online this week, we went out and uploaded another batch of new content.

Three new titles have been added to African American Music Reference—Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers by Doug Ramsey, The Pilgrim Jubilees by Alan Young, and Rythm Oil: A Journey Through the Music of the American South by Stanley Booth.

We've also added Women Composers: Music Through the Ages, Vol. 8 by Sylvia Glickman and Martha Furman Schleifer to Classical Music Reference Library.

Classical Music Library gained 24 new albums from Wirripang, including contemporary compositions by Australian composers. New material from composers Betty Beath, Phillip Wilcher, John Martin, Jeanell Carrigan, Hugh Dixon, and others is now available.

Opera in Video now contains the 1956 recording of Casta Diva from Bel Canto Society, a film biography of Bellini's life, with performances of famous arias from his operas. The film features Caterina Mancini, Gianni Poggi and Giulio Neri.

Finally, an another 18,000+ pages of sheet music has been added to Classical Scores Library. The new content includes material from the Recent Researches in the Music of the Renaissance and Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era. Composers include Johannes Mouton, Pierre de la Rue, Tomaso Albinoni, Adriano Banchieri, Francesco Gasparini, Michel Lambert, Jacopo Peri, Giovanni Felice Sances, Orazio Vecchi, Adrian Willaert, and more.

Music Online now contains over 299,000 tracks for US and Canadian customers (over 264,000 for customers in other countries), nearly 67,000 pages of full-text reference, close to 24,000 scores, and over 400 streaming videos.

July issue of Music Media Monthly is live

The July issue of Music Media Monthly is available now, and touches upon a wide range of topics and formats.

Authors Gene Hyde, Anne Shelley, Steve Dankner, and Rick Anderson discuss several excellent blues-oriented websites; recently-released video titles on Christoph von Dohnányi, Philip Glass, and Howard Goodall; books about American composers and opera; and recordings ranging from Renaissance polyphony to British folk to the lo-fi pop artistry of the Apples in Stereo.

Music Media Monthly is your guide to the best music-related books, videos, Web sites, and recordings. Check out the July issue now, and be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed, email notification, or bookmark the site. We also encourage you to leave feedback for the editor and authors.

Music Advisory Rountable at ALA

If you're heading to ALA in Washington, D.C., why not give our music editors 45 minutes of your time at our Music Advisory Roundtable? Conveniently located in the Washington Convention Center, our roundtable gives you the chance to voice your opinion and provide feedback on our current and future music collections. In exchange for your time we'll give you the opportunity to win a one-year subscription.

Our streaming audio content will triple in size by the end of 2010, we have new features, functionality, and cross-search enhancements to tell you about, and we're lowering prices. Be among the first to hear about all of it by attending this advisory roundtable and giving us your input!

The Music Advisory Roundtable is one of five roundtables we're hosting at ALA. You can learn more and RSVP here.

New music content released

Alexander Street's Music Online continues to grow, with new content recently added to Jazz Music Library, Contemporary World Music, and Opera in Video.

Over 1,500 tracks from 120 albums were recently added to Jazz Music Library. The new albums come from labels including Concord Jazz, Contemporary, Jazz Alliance, Jazzology, Neon Tonic, Playboy Jazz, and Riverside. The newly added recordings feature performers such as Bobby Darin, Sonny Rollins, Pete Escovedo, Art Farmer, Doc Evans, Sarah Vaughan, Tito Puente, and more.

New subtitles for 23 performances, including Don Giovanni, Carmen, La Boheme, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Macbeth, were added to Opera in Video.

Contemporary World Music has grown by over 3,800 tracks. Newly added music comes from ARC Music, Blue Flame Records, Buda Musique, Celestial Harmonies, INEDIT, Lyrichord, PAN Records, and Tropical Music. Genres and sub-genres covered in the new content include Afro-pop, cumbia, electronic music, world fusion, klezmer, griot music, joropo, funeral music, and more.

Music Online now contains over 258,000 tracks for US and Canadian customers (over 223,000 tracks for customers outside of the US and Canada).

New performing arts videos licensed from the BBC

 Libraries with access to Opera in Video and Dance in Video will be pleased to learn that we've just licensed some exciting titles from the BBC.

Opera in Video will soon be updated with concert arias sung by Cecilia Bartoli, Anna Netrebko, Joan Sutherland, Karita Mattila, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Renee Fleming, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Angela Gheorghiu, and others. Also licensed are excerpts of performances from the Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

Opera in Video will also soon include full-length operas from the BBC, including The Cunning Little Vixen, Rigoletto, The Magic Flute, Il Trovatore, Falstaff, and Der Vampyr, plus Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Gondoliers. 

BBC titles to be added to Dance in Video include performances by the Cuban National Ballet, Royal Ballet, Kirov Ballet, and the Royal Swedish Opera Ballet.

Opera in Video and Dance in Video are available to libraries worldwide, either through annual subscription or one-time purchase. The newly licensed BBC videos will not initially be available in all countries, so please email sales@alexanderstreet.com for more information.

Music Online is going mobile!

What's better than hundreds of thousands of audio recordings, videos, scores, and pages of full-text music reference?  How about accessing it all on the go?

In 2010 Alexander Street's entire music portfolio will be accessible on iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices. Subscribers will be able to stream music and video, access scores, search and navigate full-text reference content, and even access and edit personal playlists.

Alexander Street's iPhone and iPod Touch application will be completely free. Updating your playlists or listening to an assigned recording will literally be just a touch away. And thanks to newly developed streaming technology, you'll do it all without buffering.

Look for Alexander Street's iPhone app in 2010 on our Web site, on this blog, and through the iTunes store.