Gramophone drops magazine CD in North America!

I'm very surprised reading this thread that anyone is that interested in the cover CD, which I've always considered little more than a marketing gimmick - to quasi-compete with the BBC and CFM mags.

Do people really make decisions about buying whole CDs (often £10+) on the basis of a 5 minute excerpt? Surely it's better to use one of the many sites where you can listen to extracts from every track on the CD you're considering buying? Or even better, one of the streaming services like Naxos's or Spotify?

I've been buying Gramophone for years and in all honesty I've never ever listened to a single track of any cover CD; it just doesn't seem worth the time of day!

I think Gramophone's moving with the times by dropping the CD. Now I want to see them using 100% recycled paper and drastically cutting back all the toxic coloured inks...

Mike,

Thank you for your post, and for the feedback. To answer a couple of points, we do have plans to put the Real Great Composer series online at some point (we now need to re-seek permission for the music as the initial rights were acquired for the CD, without online streaming in mind). I'm very pleased you enjoyed the programmes however.

As for resolution, 256kbps is considered very good for streaming (better than most internet radio stations), but also is - for now - a good compromise between quality and technical delivery. The downloads you refer to, while of potentially higher-than-CD quality, are files you only play once they are fully downloaded, however long that takes in the first place. Such an approach with streaming would lead, I believe, to an inferior listening service than what we've offered. But, as technology improves - which it is always is, very rapidly - I would imagine the sort of service we can offer will do so too. But that's all in the future.

Martin

Thank you for your email. I’d like to reassure you that we work closely with both Trading Standards and the Advertising Standards Authority to ensure that we follow best practice. While I appreciate your point, the CD was a free promotional product, the aim of which was to allow readers to hear excerpts of new releases. The Player allows us to continue that, but in a much more comprehensive way. We strongly feel that the Gramophone Player uses the most appropriate new technology available to us to greatly enhance what we can offer in terms of allowing readers to sample the recordings we write about. I really would encourage you to try it – we’ve had very positive feedback from many readers so far. The free CD was additional to the pricing of the magazine and its removal does not contravene any aspect of the sale of goods act, or other consumer or advertising guidelines. In fact, a number of our subscribers opted out of receiving the CD with their magazine some time ago and they pay the same price for their subscription. I hope this answers your question, but if you do still have concerns about this, then please email us at gramophone.player@haymarket.com

I rarely listened to these CD's and had the unhappy experience, when I did, that the selections offered invariably made me not wish to buy the recommended recordings.  The BBC magazine CD's are treasures.  I keep all of them, listen to many frequently.  I am a subscriber from the first issue of this magazine and would never wish to drop it.  Gramophone, which I have also been reading since the late 1970's,  is distinctive for the excellence of its written reviews.  In recent years, dashing after the kids, the editorial quality has diminished with tiny squibs in narrow columns [these seem now to have disappeared, thank goodness] and ever shorter reviews.  The value of Gramophone has always been in the intelligence of its finest writers - of which there have been many - and in some of its lead articles.  I flip through all of the rest in a couple of minutes.  Dropping the CD doesn't bother me, save that it's yet another instance of money driven decisions made in despite of consumer interestst.  John Pfordresher, Arlington Virginia.

I think the new Gramophone player is an excellent idea. The excerpts that have been on the cover CDs have been too short for far too long (presumably due to recording company restrictions). I think it is sad that someone would end a subscription on the basis of transferring to an online model. As well as being forward-looking, the quality of technology now available supports this idea.

And massive bonus points for environmental friendliness, and economic sensibility

Not sure I understand that post...

Ah happy days, when the great and good waxed eloquently and more or less well informedly about the 'real' Great Composers, condemning the potential CD purchasers to snippets well short of five minutes of whatever discs the editor thought they might like to listen to.  Now I'll never hear Vassily Petrenko or Vladimir Jurovich on "The Real Ippolitov-Ivanov" or Fabio Luisi on "The Real Luigini".    I can hardly wait.