New Gramophone Digital Edition & Archive

Hi Chris,

Not worry, I didn't take it as such. This response may be a bit dry so I apologise in advance.

The technology we are using in to power our digital magazine is based around retaining the original magazine design and feel. This not only meant that the magazine archive retains its original look but allowed us to simply take original magazines and scan them prior to being run through a text recognisition system to power the search. All of this does takes time (and we know what times is) but trying to convert the archive so that it could be delivered as a single column of text for each story would have been much harder. This left us with the choice of developing an app that delivers the latest  magazine content as you describe or including the 90 year archive. We simply wouldn't have been able to do both. Obviously we feel we made the right choice and hopefully most of our readers will agree.

And, as we reach the end of what has been a long but exhilerating working week I would like to thank all of you for your comments. It is always nice to receive praise but we also value hearing questions, concerns and reservations as it helps us to remain focussed on what our readers want.

Have a good wekeend (exploring the archive).

Luca Da Re

I took the plunge this week and subscribed. I had some troubles along the lines of those that Chris has outlined, but they were quickly ironed out and I am now accessing the magazine and archive from my laptop.

My initial impressions are very favourable indeed and growing more so by the day. The display, once adjusted for a laptop screen, is very clear indeed, particularly on the older issues which, in the main, I have been exploring.

The search facility is certainly lacking in comparison with, say, the old Gramofile, but I daresay will become more flexible as it becomes more familiar. To practice, I listened to some music this morning and tried to locate the corresponding reviews which was very easy in all but one of the pieces.

In addition to various reviews, I have been reading a lot of the old 'The Gramophone and the Voice' quartely retrospects by Desmond Shawe-Taylor, John Steane's predecessor. Absolutely fascinating stuff, and whilst I own a more or less complete set of 1950s editions, they have been stored unread in a friend's loft 200 miles away for about 30 years. The laptop access is significantly easier.

Locating pages is enormously aided by the embedded links, and whilst the search facility does throw up (as others have pointed out) numerous advertisements, the small preview box by the side of each result is very helpful in narrowing down the target (that is if one doesn't get distracted onto various highways and byways that come up on display)

As yet, I'm still going through the "Goodness, look at that"/ "I'd forgotten all about that"/"I wonder if they've got...." phase, and time can pass rather swiftly. It reminds me of some years ago when I had to do some academic research in the British Newspaper Library at Collindale. This really should have taken about a week, but ended up taking three as I got distracted by all sorts of things like Test Match reports from the 1920s, letters and editorials having nothing to do with what I should have been looking at, and adverts for the most curious products.

So all in all, (very lightly qualified) thumbs up.

Am seriously considering this but wonder if anyone has used it on their android mobile phone.  I have a Samsung Galaxy Note with a decent sized screen that should be ideal for this.  Thanks in advance.

Dear martin_opera,

I can't comment on the user experience in the Galaxy Note as I haven't seen the digital edition on that device but you should be able to access the magazine by downloading the Exactly app (managed by our partners at Exact Editions) from the Adroid store. Inside you will be able to search for Gramophone and access the digital edition and archive.

If you run into problems let us know and we will see if we can help.

Many thanks,

Luca

33lp, the answer to no 3 is that you need have no fears at all about the archive. I had long given up on trying to read some of the pdfs on the old one. The new version is superb - startlingly clear, even in most of the very old editions I've been sampling.

I'm so sorry, but I dont have the money to pay a subscription.
The archive was a wonderful place to forget that.
Kindest regards and farewell.

I have been a Subscriber and a User of your free online Archives for more years than I can remember. I am most distressed that your Archives are now only available by subscription.