Prelude To The Annual Orchestra Website Review

As mentioned last month, the annual Orchestra Website Review is taking place a few weeks later than normal this year but the upside is it provides a bit more time to prepare, which is a good thing because a cursory review of many websites indicates that quite a few changes have taken place since last season.  However, before the reviewing period begins in earnest, I wanted to solicit any suggestions as …

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But What If I Don’t Want To Buy Your Damn Music?!?

There’s a great article over at NewMusicBox by Jean Cook that examines her frustrations when dealing with the seemingly nonsensical way digital music providers handle classical music tracks. Undoubtedly, anyone who has spent much time dealing with iTunes and the lot would give Jean’s article a hearty "Amen!" but what I found really interesting were the comments. Frankly, I’m surprised there aren’t more comments from the wide variety of boutique classical music digital providers but at the time this article is published, there are only comments from representatives of Naxos and Chandos, both of which chime in with intriguing points along with plugs for their respective service. It is a great conversation but here’s the issue I have with most of the discussions surrounding classical music recordings and digital distribution: what about those of us who don’t want to buy it…

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Does Your Orchestra YouTube (again)?

A few years ago, before YouTube became a gravitational force strong enough to bend light, I posted a blog about orchestras showing up on YouTube. Back then there were less than a dozen search hits (none of which were posted with the orchestra’s permission) but if you do a search for "symphony orchestra" at YouTube today you’ll get "about 38,500" hits including everything from Metallica with the San Francisco Symphony (see below) to the now famous VB Beer commercial

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Tech Tip For The Day: Date Range Google Searches

If you’re like me, a day rarely passes without using Google but one of the long standing issues I’ve encountered with the search engine is narrowing my search parameters by a date range. Fortunately, I ran across a method to enter a date range into a standard Google search but the only trick is the dates must be expressed as a Julian date. Fortunately, there are a few easy to use …

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Technology Still Amazes

As I’m wrapping up my work day I placed a video call to my wife via my tablet PC and Skype, a free VOIP service and even though we’re separated by several time zones and a good portion of the planet, I’m looking at her smiling face and chatting with her while I wait for a ride back to the hotel. Since this is a tablet PC, I have the screen …

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