How to give users what they want, pt. 2: The Philadelphia Orchestra’s new online music store
The Philadelphia Orchestra launched a new online music store today. Based on the nugs.net music platform designed to deliver downloads of concert recordings, the new store offers live performances going as far back as 1961.
Unlike the popular Apple iTunes Store, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s store offers DRM-free downloads in a choice of either MP3 or FLAC format. The MP3 files are smaller, but the FLAC files offer lossless compression for the best sound quality. The music store works with all operating systems and most full performances are priced at $5 for MP3 files and a dollar more for FLAC files. Downloads can be burned to CDs without any limitations and printable CD art is provided:
What do I get?
After completing the purchase process you may download the entire performance or album in the format you’ve chosen. For those who wish to burn the performances to CD, we have created for many of our performances printable PDF files for the CD labels, booklet, and tray liner. The color files are printable on ink-jet and laser printers, and use NEATO templates.
One of the most exciting features of the store is that recent performances will be available for download online within hours or days of the original performance:
This service allows fans to buy and download files of soundboard recordings from current Philadelphia Orchestra performances very soon after the performance has happened. These audio recordings are mixed and mastered each night by the Orchestra’s sound engineers.
To celebrate the store opening, the Philadelphia Orchestra is offering a free download of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony performed September 24, 2005. In addition, nugs.net, the technology provider for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s online store, has an online archive of over 200 free concert downloads from bands such as Phish, The Grateful Dead, and Widespread Panic.
technorati tags:philadelphia, orchestra, mp3, flac, phish, gratefuldead, widespreadpanic, itunes
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[…] If you’re into classical music, I came across an article from uninnovate.com and found out about the new Philadelphia Orchestra online music store. They sell their music as unprotected MP3 or FLAC (lossless) files, so you can play them on any music player you want. And for a limited time they have Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony available as MP3 for free. I didn’t know what that was till I just listened to it—it’s the one that goes da da da duuuuuh…da da da duuuuh. […]