Tread lightly on the things of earth

For classical music lovers like me, this is big news:

eMusic has just added Naxos to its collection of classical music labels, which is a little like marrying into the Sears-Roebuck clan — suddenly, whatever you need, you’ve got.

I’ve become quite a fan of eMusic over the past many months. My musical tastes are diversifying as I get older — not even slightly just classical — and hence the more I look, the more I discover off-the-beaten-path gems in eMusic’s diverse catalog. Meanwhile, as in this case, they’re adding more and more on-the-beaten-path selections.

The pricing for eMusic’s hassle-free, non-DRM, reasonably high bitrate MP3s (~180–220 kbps VBR) is hard to beat: roughly 25 cents per track, no matter how long the track is. (Check the eMusic site for current pricing.)

As for classical, I think Naxos is an amazing label, economy pricing and good to great classical recordings. They are in some ways single-handedly reviving the classical music recording scene.

For example, I’m a huge fan of composer Anton Bruckner (as I wrote about last March).

Georg Tintner’s recordings of Bruckner’s symphonies on Naxos are considered among the best anywhere, always acclaimed highly, and now they’re available thru eMusic for, looks like, ~$1 per symphony. (I haven’t checked these out directly, because I already bought the boxed set elsewhere.)

And now behold, the Naxos Bruckner offerings at eMusic.

Woo-hoo! Aural joy in store.

2005-11-01 update:

Today I learned from an eMusic support rep that on top of what else I like eMusic for, there’s this —

Once you have selected a track from eMusic, you are allowed to re-download it as many times as you like without losing download credits provided that the album is still available through eMusic.

That’s reasonable insurance that you’ll always have access to your purchased music, even if your drive grinds to a permanent halt, which is refreshingly unlike the situation at the iTunes Music Store. (I like the iTMS, but its restrictions make it the last place I buy music instead of the first.)

In order to re-download tracks, please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your eMusic account
2. Click on the Your Profile tab on the homepage
3. Click on the Downloads button
4. Select the Artists, Albums and Tracks you wish to download from the list provided