Classical Archives is an online digital music store

Online music store

An online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. It may be differentiated from music streaming services in that the music store offers the actual music file, while streaming services offer partial or full listening without...

 focused exclusively on classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

. Originally opening as the Classical MIDI Archives in 1994 primarily as a repository for free MIDI sequences of classical music works, in August, 2000 the site incorporated as Classical Archives, LLC, and has since been also offering commercial label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 recordings for both streaming

Streaming media

Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...

 and downloading

Music download

A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

. Non-members can stream 60-second samples from any track on the Classical Archives. For a monthly fee of $5.99 (or $59.90 a year) members can stream any track

Track (CD)

On an optical disc, a track or title is a subdivision of its content. Specifically, it is a consecutive set of sectors on the disc containing a block of data. One session may contain one or more tracks of the same or different types...

, work

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

, or album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 in its entirety from the site’s catalogue, and receive a discount of 10% on the price of downloads. Both members and non-members can access detailed musicological

Music history

Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies the composition, performance, reception, and criticism of music over time...

 information for each work: movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

, genre

Music genre

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...

, principal instruments

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

, year of composition, and key

Key (music)

In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...

. Additionally, nearly every composer’s

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 biography is provided.

Classical Archives uses a proprietary system (called the Contextual Metadata Engine) that allows for the ingestion and cataloguing of all recordings based on musicologically accurate and uniform metadata. Because of the Contextual Metadata Engine, visitors can search and cross-reference by various relevant criteria: composer, work title, artist, albums, historical period, instrument, and genre, in order to find and compare different recordings.

Classical Archives was founded by CEO Pierre R. Schwob. The cataloguing of the Classical Archives database is carried out by a team of musicologists led by Chief Musicologist and Artistic Director Dr. Nolan Gasser

Nolan Gasser

Nolan Ira Gasser is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist. He is the Chief Musicologist for Pandora Media, Inc. and the architect of the Music Genome Project, the proprietary musical analysis system that underlies the popular Internet radio service...

.

File Types

The site provides 320kbps MP3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

 files for downloads and 160 kbps AAC

Advanced Audio Coding

Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....

 files for streaming. Sample clips are streamed at 60kbps for non-members.

Database

As of May 22, 2011, the Classical Archives database features 12,046 composers, 42,744 recording artists, and 26,697 Albums from 268 labels. These include the classical catalogues of Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...

 (Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...

, Decca, Phillips

Philips Records

Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...

, ECM, etc.), Sony (RCA

RCA Records

RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...

, Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, etc.), Naxos

Naxos Records

Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...

 (BIS

BIS Records

BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden.BIS focuses on classical music, both contemporary and early, especially works that are not already well represented by existing recordings....

, Chandos

Chandos Records

Chandos Records is an independent classical music recording company based in Colchester, Essex, in the United Kingdom, founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens.- Background :...

, Hänssler Classic

Hänssler Classic

Hänssler Classic is a German classical record label based in Holzgerlingen.Friedrich Hänssler Senior founded Musikverlag Hänssler in 1919 to publish church music. Since 1972 Hänssler Classic has also published contemporary and jazz music...

, etc), and many independent labels through IODA (harmonia mundi

Harmonia Mundi

Harmonia Mundi is an independent music record label founded in 1958 by Bernard Coutaz in Arles . The Latin phrase means "world harmony"....

, Nimbus

Nimbus Records

Nimbus Records is a British record company specializing in classical music recordings.Nimbus was founded in 1972 by the late bass singer Numa Labinsky and the brothers Michael and Gerald Reynolds and has traditionally been based at the Wyastone Leys mansion site, near Monmouth and the English/Welsh...

, Summit

Summit Records

Summit Records, Inc. is an internationally distributed record label that evolved out of the dynamic large brass ensemble, Summit Brass in the late 1980s...

, etc). As of June, 2011 the Classical Archives has 904,230 registered members.

Other Site Features

• Exclusive Interviews: Artistic Director Nolan Gasser has conducted exclusive interviews with international performers and composers including Marin Alsop
  Marin Alsop
  Marin Alsop is an American conductor and violinist. She is the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.In 2012, Alsop will replace Yan Pascal Tortelier as principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra....
  
  , American Brass Quintet
  American Brass Quintet
  When the American Brass Quintet gave its first public performance on December 11, 1960, brass chamber music was still relatively unknown to concert audiences...
  
  , Vladimir Ashkenazy
  Vladimir Ashkenazy
  Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian-Icelandic conductor and pianist. Since 1972 he has been a citizen of Iceland, his wife Þórunn's country of birth. Since 1978, because of his many obligations in Europe, he and his family have resided in Meggen, near Lucerne in Switzerland...
  
  , Joshua Bell
  Joshua Bell
  Joshua David Bell is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.-Childhood:Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's father is the late Alan P...
  
  , Ray Chen
  Ray Chen
  Ray Chen is a Taiwanese-Australian violinist. He was the first prize winner in the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition.-Biography:...
  
  , Gloria Coates
  Gloria Coates
  Gloria Coates is an American composer who has moved to, and has subsequently been living in Munich, Germany since 1969...
  
  , John Corigliano
  John Corigliano
  John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...
  
  , Jeremy Denk
  Jeremy Denk
  Jeremy Denk is an American classical pianist. He has performed with numerous orchestras and presented world premieres by Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, Kevin Puts, and Ned Rorem. He frequently performs with violinists Joshua Bell and Soovin Kim. He has recorded several chamber works as well as a solo...
  
  , Danielle de Niese
  Danielle de Niese
  Danielle de Niese is a lyric soprano. After success as a young child in singing competitions in Australia, she moved to the USA where she developed an operatic career...
  
  , Simone Dinnerstein
  Simone Dinnerstein
  Simone Dinnerstein is an American classical pianist who became celebrated, both critically and commercially, for her self-financed recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, released in 2007.-Education:...
  
  , JoAnn Falletta
  JoAnn Falletta
  JoAnn Falletta is an American classical musician and orchestral conductor.Falletta was educated at the Mannes College of Music and The Juilliard School in New York City...
  
  , Renee Fleming
  Renée Fleming
  Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...
  
  , David Finckel
  David Finckel
  David Finckel is an American cellist and influential figure in the classical music world. He is currently the cellist of the Emerson String Quartet, co-Artistic Director of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, founder and co-Artistic Director of Music@Menlo, and Visiting Professor of Music...
  
  , Alan Gilbert
  Alan Gilbert
  Alan David Gilbert AO, was a historian and academic administrator who was until June 2010 the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester....
  
  , Vittorio Grigolo
  Vittorio Grigolo
  Vittorio Grigolo is an Italian singer.Grigolo was born in Arezzo, but raised in Rome.He began singing by the age of four...
  
  , Hélène Grimaud
  Hélène Grimaud
  Hélène Grimaud is a French pianist.-Biography:Grimaud was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. Although her autobiography Variations Sauvages suggests a...
  
  , Hillary Hahn, Wu Han
  Wu Han (Pianist)
  Wu Han is a Chinese-American pianist, and influential figure in the classical music world. Leading an unusually multifaceted career, she has risen to international prominence through her wide-ranging activities as a concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator, and cultural...
  
  , Paul Hillier
  Paul Hillier
  Paul Douglas Hillier is a conductor, music director and baritone. He specializes in early music and contemporary art music, especially that by composers Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford and the Guildhall School of Music, beginning his professional career while a...
  
  , Daniel Hope
  Daniel Hope (violinist)
  Daniel Hope is a British violinist. A soloist, he has also been a member of the Beaux Arts Trio since 2002.Hope was born in S. Africa but raised and educated in England. Hope studied at and received a degree from the Royal Academy of Music, and was tutored by the Russian pedagogue Zakhar...
  
  , Sharon Isbin
  Sharon Isbin
  Sharon Isbin is a widely-recorded American classical guitarist, recording artist, concertizer, and the founder of the Guitar Department at the Juilliard School.-Early life and education:...
  
  , David Lang
  David Lang (composer)
  David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...
  
  , Lang Lang
  Lang Lang (pianist)
  Lang Lang , born June 14, 1982, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, is a Chinese concert pianist, currently residing in New York, who has performed with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States and his native China. He is increasingly well known around the world for his concert performances,...
  
  , Mark Padmore
  Mark Padmore
  Mark Padmore is a British tenor appearing in concerts, recitals, and opera.Born in London 8 March 1961, and raised in Canterbury, Kent in England. Padmore studied clarinet and piano prior to his gaining a choral scholarship to King's College, Cambridge...
  
  , Sondra Radvanovsky
  Sondra Radvanovsky
  Sondra Radvanovsky is an American soprano. Sondra was born in Berwyn, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on April 11, 1969. She lived and attended high school in Richmond, Indiana, a small city which, despite its size, had its own opera company...
  
  , Ryuichi Sakamoto
  Ryuichi Sakamoto
  After working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, the group helped pioneer electronic genres such as...
  
  , Stile Antico
  Stile Antico (early music vocal ensemble)
  Stile Antico is a British vocal ensemble, specialising in the polyphonic music of the Renaissance and Early Baroque.Established in 2001, they won the Audience Prize at the 2005 Early Music Network Young Artists' Competition, and have since been described as "one of the brightest new stars in the...
  
  , Trio Mediaeval, Susan Wadsworth, Xiayin Wang, and Eric Whitacre
  Eric Whitacre
  Eric Whitacre is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination...
  
  .

• Free One Click Concerts™: A concert length program of selected tracks based on either a special theme, composer, period, or genre.

• About pages for composers and works. Powered by All Music Guide
  All Music Guide
  Allmusic is a service of music guide, owned by All Media Guide. Allmusic was founded in 1991 by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine as a guide for consumers. Its first reference book was published the following year...
  
  , biographies and work descriptions provide musicological and historical background.

• Playlists: Members have access to playlists that are created by other members and Classical Archives staff.

• Essentials: For each composer, a list of historically important works is presented.