Deutsche Grammophon, the world’s leading classical music record label, has launched the DG Web Shop, a digital music store that offers the majority of the label’s recordings as MP3 downloads. Almost 2,500 DG albums will be available for download at a transfer bit-rate of 320 kilobits per second (kbps). The label will be available in [...]

March 13: It‚Äôs 31 Days of Free Music month at Podcasting News. Every day in March, we‚Äôre going to do our best to hook you up a great free music podcast. Previously, we’ve highlighted podcasts with free guitar music, free jazz videos, free soundtrack music, and some brutal, harsh noise. And we’re not even halfway [...]

Deutsche Welle, an English-language news site from Germany, has introduced a podcast, Beethoven Festival Bonn, that features Beethoven’s most famous symphonies performed by young orchestras. A recent episode features a live recording of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, performed by Istanbul’s National Conservatory orchestra at the 2002 Beethoven Festival in Bonn Opus 68, dubbed the “Pastoral,” is [...]

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music today announced a new music podcast.The audio and video project, found within the school’s new IUMusicLive Web site, includes performances by violinist Joshua Bell, conductor Michael Stern and the Beaux Arts Trio, and showcases three recent IU Opera Theater productions. According to Music Dean Gwyn Richards, the project [...]

A new podcast from Opera News promises to take listeners To Hell and Back. This week, San Francisco-based period-instrument orchestra Philharmonia Baroque presents the world premiere of a new mini-opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. Written specifically for PBO and its Baroque instruments, To Hell and Back is a modern-day telling of [...]

San Francisco Opera and MobileCast Media have announced a joint podcast project, the first of which features an interview with opera icon Deborah Voigt. San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley’s interview with Deborah Voigt was recorded live on the stage of San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, offers a personal glimpse into the life [...]

Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a century-old institution described as “elegant and refined, but perhaps a bit fusty,” has introduced a classical music podcast, The Concert. The recordings are from the museum’s regular concert series, and feature performances by acclaimed master musicians and up-and-coming young artists. A new program is posted every two weeks. ‚ÄúBecause [...]

People used to think of marijuana as the demon weed, and that smoking it could lead to promiscuity, harder drugs, and even madness.Research by University of Leicester psychologist Dr Adrian North may reveal an even harsher truth: that marijuana leads to Mahler. Actually, North’s work reveals a correlation between marijuana use and classical music fans, [...]

UK’s City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra has introduced a new podcast, the CBSO Podcast, making it the first major ensemble in the world to launch a regular podcast, according to organizers. The free 30-minute monthly podcast, hosted by music broadcaster Tommy Pearson, includes the latest CBSO news, interviews and discussions with musicians and conductors as [...]