Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about 17 labels including Naxos Records, Naxos Audiobooks, and Naxos Books (ebooks). There are about an additional 50 labels that are independent of the Naxos Musical Group with a wide range of offerings. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.

Naxos Records

Naxos Records is a record label specializing in

. The company was known for its budget pricing of discs, with simpler artwork and design than most other labels. In the 1980s, Naxos primarily recorded central and eastern European symphony orchestras, often with lesser-known conductors, as well as upcoming and unknown musicians, to minimize recording costs and maintain its budget prices. In more recent years, Naxos has taken advantage of the expiring copyrights of other companies' studio recordings by selling discs remastered from gramophone records. Examples include the complete recordings of opera singers such as

Enrico Caruso Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ...

, Amelita Galli-Curci, and Titta Ruffo and the 1934 world première performance of Howard Hanson's opera '' Merry Mount''. Legal restrictions prevented some of these recordings from being sold in the United States. Naxos has also recorded the music of contemporary composers, including Leonardo Balada, Bechara El-Khoury, Laurent Petitgirard, and Alla Pavlova. The label has branched out into jazz, world music, and books on musical subjects. Naxos Spoken Word Library contains non-music products, such as audiobooks and radio dramas. Since the 1990s, Naxos has recorded with British and American orchestras, such as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The company produces Super Audio CDs, DVD-Audio, and Blu-rays. In 2003, it began a paid subscription service for listening on the Internet that offers its complete catalogue and the Naxos Music Library. As of 2019, subscribers had access to 2,225,190 tracks on its 145,755 discs, though these numbers were increasing by nearly 100 new discs a day. In 2015, it launched a high-definition download and streaming service, ClassicsOnline HD•LL, with a catalogue drawn from a number of classical record labels.

Business model

Naxos generally avoids repertoire duplication. Because of that, its classical repertoire has broadened to include fringe works, such as the symphonies of Nikolai Myaskovsky,

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

, and the works of lesser-known composers, such as

Alexander Glazunov Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov; ger, Glasunow (, 10 August 1865 – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 ...

Johann Nepomuk Hummel Johann Nepomuk Hummel (14 November 177817 October 1837) was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist. His music reflects the Transition from Classical to Romantic music, transition from the Classical period (music), Classical to the Romantic ...

, Ferdinand Ries and Louis Spohr. It has produced a series of little-recorded works, such as the American Classics series, Canadian Classics series, Japanese classical music, Jewish-American music, wind band music, film music, and

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

, many of which are première recordings.

Distribution

Naxos Global Logistics, based in

Poing Poing may refer to: * "Poing" (song), a gabber style song * Poing, Bavaria Poing is a municipality in the Upper Bavarian district of Ebersberg, lying east of central Munich. Geography Poing is approximately NE of Munich and is serviced by the ...

near Munich, was founded in 2008 to expand the services offered to its distributed labels, including manufacturing, marketing, and licensing.

Awards

In 2005, Naxos won the Label of the Year Award at Classic FM/''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'' awards.

Other divisions

* ARC Music * ArkivMusic * Capriccio * Dynamic * Oehms Classics * Ondine * Orfeo

References

External links

*
Capitol Records, Inc. v. Naxos of America, Inc. legal case
{{Authority control Classical music record labels Jazz record labels Hong Kong independent record labels IFPI members Record label distributors Record labels established in 1987 Audiobook companies and organizations