The Classical Download Thread

Started by Mark, June 03, 2007, 02:04:37 PM

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DavidW

The entire Barshai Shostakovich symphony cycle is only $16 on itunes and only $9 on amazon.

Brian

MusicWeb's postage costs, and my tiny apartment, have led me to set up deals wherein I'll be reviewing CDs for them based on downloads from various sites. So far no issues with ClassicsOnline, but The Classical Shop, which is run by Chandos, has been giving me fits. They let you download in MP3, WMA, or FLAC, which is nice. Not-so-nice: their download manager software only lets you get one album at once, so when I tried downloading two albums, the first one was cut off and I had to wait for the second one to finish, then go back in and manually pull down every track from album #1 that hadn't been received. Pain in the butt. Hopefully I can find a workaround. Anybody have experiences with The Classical Shop?


aukhawk

Quote from: Brian on June 30, 2013, 10:58:11 AM
... The Classical Shop, which is run by Chandos, has been giving me fits. They let you download in MP3, WMA, or FLAC, which is nice. Not-so-nice: their download manager software only lets you get one album at once, so when I tried downloading two albums, the first one was cut off and I had to wait for the second one to finish, then go back in and manually pull down every track from album #1 that hadn't been received. Pain in the butt. Hopefully I can find a workaround. Anybody have experiences with The Classical Shop?

I've had similar.  The whole experience is generally flakey compared with Amazon, Classics Online or the excellent eClassical.  It took me several visits over 3 days to download an entire Shostakovich Quartets set. However I've never lost any money over it, they offer lossless files and sometimes 24-bit even when not advertised as such, and in some cases can be cheaper than Amazon (for example if you want to split a 2-disc set).
I use all four of the above-named, but mostly Amazon (UK).

pencils

Forgive me for asking a question that probably has an answer somewhere in here, and further apologies if it offends, but do any of you guys/ladies use places to download that are, erm.... cheap. I mean, cheap as in, well, you know what I mean. Pointers welcomed.

North Star

Quote from: pencils on July 09, 2013, 02:45:30 PM
Forgive me for asking a question that probably has an answer somewhere in here, and further apologies if it offends, but do any of you guys/ladies use places to download that are, erm.... cheap. I mean, cheap as in, well, you know what I mean. Pointers welcomed.
Symphonyshare.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

pencils

Thank you  :) ... The more suggestions the better  :P

DavidW

Itunes.  And no other anymore due to the convenience of playing from the cloud -> Apple TV -> home hifi.

otare

I just found out that you can download lossless (ALAC or FLAC) from Hyperion for about half the price of the regular CD. This is very tempting. Hyperion has a lot of interesting recordings.

Opus106

Quote from: otare on July 27, 2013, 04:45:24 AM
I just found out that you can download lossless (ALAC or FLAC) from Hyperion for about half the price of the regular CD. This is very tempting. Hyperion has a lot of interesting recordings.

If it's going to hurt your wallet very much, let me not tell you about the daily discount of 50% at E-classical (though it's only one CD per day; but their prices for 24-bit FLAC are generally better anyway, compared to the physical CD from BIS). Or about Chandos, who sell their discs through The Classical Shop.
Regards,
Navneeth

Brian

Anybody else have an experience where MP3 downloads from ClassicsOnline have awful popping sounds at really loud orchestral climaxes? There weren't any on the Copland Rodeo I got from them recently, but this Colin Davis Sibelius 2 (Dresden) has them in the first movement and I thought my headphones were breaking. Then I played it on my speakers and the popping continued.

Willow Pattern

Quote from: Brian on July 27, 2013, 11:46:52 AM
Anybody else have an experience where MP3 downloads from ClassicsOnline have awful popping sounds at really loud orchestral climaxes? There weren't any on the Copland Rodeo I got from them recently, but this Colin Davis Sibelius 2 (Dresden) has them in the first movement and I thought my headphones were breaking. Then I played it on my speakers and the popping continued.

I've downloaded a fair bit from ClassicsOnline lately and have'nt experienced any problems like you are describing?. I still havent gotten through my virtual pile yet so I will be sure to let you know if this problem occurs!.

Cato

Does anyone have any experience with this Russian website?

http://classical-music-online.net/en/composers/O

I have tested it and so far it seems marvelous!  Under "O" one finds e.g. all the symphonies of Ovchinnikov, plus his classic film scores.  Check out Leo Ornstein.

They also offer the only stereo recording of Taneyev's opera The Oresteia.  (It takes a while to download, or at least it takes a while for my connection.)

For $20. via PayPal one gets "unlimited" hearing for 3 years: I was wondering if anyone had paid this fee and if so, were you satisfied.
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Karl Henning

Most interesting. The Twirblers must know of this!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

cjvinthechair

Quote from: Cato on October 01, 2013, 06:12:53 AM
Does anyone have any experience with this Russian website?

http://classical-music-online.net/en/composers/O

I have tested it and so far it seems marvelous!  Under "O" one finds e.g. all the symphonies of Ovchinnikov, plus his classic film scores.  Check out Leo Ornstein.

They also offer the only stereo recording of Taneyev's opera The Oresteia.  (It takes a while to download, or at least it takes a while for my connection.)

For $20. via PayPal one gets "unlimited" hearing for 3 years: I was wondering if anyone had paid this fee and if so, were you satisfied.

Most of us settle for the long wait between free downloads - you can still get 4 or 5 a day - but the range of music is quite spectacular, & in 2+ years I've not had a problem with anything on the site !
Clive.

Cato

Quote from: cjvinthechair on October 01, 2013, 10:23:16 AM
Most of us settle for the long wait between free downloads - you can still get 4 or 5 a day - but the range of music is quite spectacular, & in 2+ years I've not had a problem with anything on the site !

Thanks for the response!  I would hate to get hooked on the site, and then see it tank for lack of funds!  That is why I was wondering about donating online.

"Spectacular" is correct!  Other examples are the 3 Piano Sonatas of Protopopov, Vyshnegradsky's Transparence for Ondes Martenot and 1/4-tone pianos, Busoni's Violin Concerto, and his operas Turandot and Doctor Faust, 2 operas by Mehul, and on and on!
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

stingo

SACD - does anyone know if any retailers (like eClassical) offer the surround version of recordings vs the stereo version for download?

A1_DAN

Channel classics have a small selection of multichannel downloads in DSD format.

http://www.channelclassics.com/native-dsd-multichannel.html