OnClassical is an Italian

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

. It features

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 ...

mostly for single instrument or chamber ensemble.

History

Founded in April 2003 by Alessandro Simonetto,

harpsichordist A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord. Harpsichordists may play as soloists, as accompanists, as chamber musicians, or as members of an orchestra, or some combination of these roles. Solo harpsichordists may play unaccompanied son ...

, producer and sound engineer, it enlists selected first-prize international contest winners and young talented

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

s who do not hold exclusive contracts with managers or traditional recording houses. ''OnClassical'' was the first Italian label to produce, realize, distribute and sell recordings through the web and amongst the first to apply the new philosophy of

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

to MP3 and other files. OnClassical has no relationship with societies of rights collecting due to the facts it only threats

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

music.

Versions

The website started as a simple collection of classical music audio performances of some of the most important pianists such as

Maurizio Baglini Maurizio Baglini (born 1975 in Pisa), is an Italian pianist. Prizewinner in major international piano competitions such as Concorso Busoni in Bolzano, International Chopin Piano Competition, Fryderyk Chopin Competition, he subsequently was award ...

Rustem Hayroudinoff Rustem Hayroudinoff (russian: link=no, Рустем Афзалович Хайрутдинов) is a Russian concert pianist. Tatar by nationality, he was born in Kazan, Russian Federation (Republic of Tatarstan). His father, Afzal Hayroudinoff is a ...

Gianluca Luisi Gianluca Luisi (born 1970 in Pescara) is an Italian pianist known for his interpretations of J. S. Bach. whose complete ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'' he recorded. Luisi studied at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro under the guidance of Franco Sca ...

Alberto Nosè Alberto Nosè (born 1979) is an Italian pianist. Biography Born in Villafranca di Verona, Italy, in 1979, Alberto Nosé studied at the Verona Conservatory F. E. Dall’Abaco. He continued his studies with Franco Scala, Boris Petrushansky and Leo ...

, Mariangela Vacatello and other. Only in January 2004 (second version) it evolved as an online record label and a mobile recording studio working with its own equipment. The third, of February 2005 (the 14th), and the last version, of July 2007 (the 14th), have always maintained the graphic unchanged (white blackground with yellow left border) and the main concepts tied to contents and licences.

The late versions

Since 2006 the house only publishes self-produced recordings through a more careful selection. Albums are sold in a CD-quality uncompressed format (

PCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio applications. In a PCM stream, the amp ...

WAV Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced "wave") is an audio file format standard, developed by IBM and Microsoft, for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is the main format used on Microsoft Win ...

, at 44.1 k Hz × 16- bit while more recently only Studio Masters

FLAC FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software p ...

are actually available (recent albums at 88.2 kHz x 24 bit). No

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement militai ...

are present inside the files. Compressed formats can be found through the online stores such as

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

emusic eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. In exchange for a monthly subscription eMusic users can download a fixed number of MP3 tracks per month. eMusic was established in 1998, is headquartered in New York Ci ...

, Qobuz, eClassical and many other shops.

The recordings

The recordings are considered of high quality. Some recordings have also been licensed for notable record labels such as Naxos or Brilliant Classics. Today the catalogue includes more than 200 titles distributed by Naxos of America. One of the main discographic projects is the recording of the complete works for clavier of Buxtehude and Bohm as performed by Florentine organist and harpsichordist

Simone Stella Simone Stella (born 1981 in Florence, Italy) is an Italian harpsichordist, organist, composer and producer. Biography He studied piano in Florence with Rosanita Racugno and Marco Vavolo, organ in Florence with Mariella Mochi and Alessandro A ...

now also released by Brilliant Classics.

Collaborations

OnClassical company furnishes the largest quantity of the classical music for Jamendo pro: the commercial program for

music licensing Music licensing is the licensed use of copyrighted music. Music licensing is intended to ensure that the owners of copyrights on musical works are compensated for certain uses of their work. A purchaser has limited rights to use the work without ...

at jamendo.com.Jamendo goes OnClassical
.

References

Other references

Interview of Cameron Parkins @creativecommons.org
XI/2007

External links

* * {{Authority control Classical music record labels Italian independent record labels Netlabels Online music stores of Italy Record labels established in 2003