I'm in danger of getting a little sidetracked by trying to answer the question above. But having the Passionato publicity machine turn up on my doorstep was a trifle disconcerting.
So, going back to the whole 'major label' hoopla, this is a little correction to the post below. I mentioned the Deutsche Grammophon webshop as a comparison when it comes to who's the best value. Sadly the DG online store isn't brilliant value in the UK at the moment given that prices are in Euros and the pound is so weak at present.
The site I failed to mention (it's my age, you know) was the Universal download shop: http://www.classicsandjazz.co.uk. They've been around for a couple of years now and offer most DG releases as well as other labels within the Universal group (Philips, Decca and so on). Their downloads are encoded at 320kbps and from what I can tell their prices are identical to, or even slightly cheaper than those on Passionato. For instance, Peter Schreier's excellent 1986 recording of Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium is £14.99 for MP3s (WMA also available). On Passionato it can be found for £15.99 (MP3 - no FLAC available here). I'd still opt for MDT's 3CD price of £14.50, mind you.
Oh, and UC&J have Thomas Quasthoff & Dorothea Röschmann's great recent cantata disk for a very reasonable £7.90. This is a pretty good bargain I have to say and a nice treat for a discerning listener this Christmas, given that two of the pieces featured were written for the Christmas season.
For the record, here are the labels featured by Passionato:
* Arts
* Avie
* BBC
* Chandos
* Classic FM
* Decca
* DG
* EMI
* LSO Live
* Marco Polo
* Mercury Living Presence
* Naxos
* Philips
* Universal
* Universal Classics & Jazz
* Verve
* Virgin
There is by no means a comprehensive selection from these labels: poor old Arts only have 8 albums!
No Warners (back on the major label theme)? Their digital selection could really do with a boost, as their own site isn't that good - although there are some bargains to be found there.
Maybe it's offering EMI that's their USP - although a brief glance seems to suggest not much improvement over CD. Nevertheless, I'm sure I'll find something more positive to say soon! ;-)
4 comments:
I find Passionato, despite its shortcomings, better than UCJ simply because they sell not only EMI (which you highlighted) but also Naxos. With these two great lines in addition to the Universal stuff, you have a much better selection. You failed to mention the big advantage of Passionato, though, which is that they offer lossless FLAC format. It costs extra, but if you're serious about classical music it is worth it to get CD quality.
Hi. Thanks for the comment. This post was kind of a follow-up to an earlier post about Passionato where I mentioned the lossless thing. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, but I was a bit peeved that the Passionato marketing department came along and spammed my weblog. ;-)
It's worth mentioning that their Universal selection isn't available in FLAC, though. So the lossless offer is limited to Naxos and a handful of other labels from the Chandos stable - which have been available in FLAC for a while from theclassicalshop.net. Whether offering Naxos and EMI in that format is enough to make them stand out (at the price they're pitched at), I'm not so sure. For instance, you can pick up a Naxos CD for the same price as a Passionato lossless download.
Their marketing department sounds on top of things, althugh annoying. Anyway, when I called customer service (to find out WHY the DG catalogue isn't in lossless) i was told by their customer service rep (the delightfully named Dimple Mistry) that they will soon have DG in FLAC too. Granted, as you say, it's at the higher price.....but I'm pretty picky about my collection. I do agree that some of their prices are higher than physical CD,especially on box sets.....they should fix this.
Maybe their marketing department should be telling people about DG going into lossless rather than hitting your site :)
Interesting to hear that about DG. I do take your point about lossless downloads. It'll be interesting to see whether they take off or not. I suspect most people's downloads are played either on computer speakers or through ipod-y headphones. Whether you can tell the difference in sound quality listening like that is debatable, I guess.
They could do with upping their selection - maybe it's to do with my peculiar tastes, but they never seem to have what I'm looking for! Or it's way cheaper on CD. I spent much of today tracking down the 'top 10' Christmas carols (according to a BBC Music Magazine poll) to write a post about the list on our Christmas weblog. I struggled to find anything on Passionato and found Chandos & Classicsonline more reliable. Well, until Classicsonline suddenly froze and refused to let me download my tracks that is!
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