OnClassical

OnClassical

Opened	Before November 2003
Pricing model	visitor's choice
Platforms	Platform independent
Format	WAV (.wav)
Restrictions	None, Creative Commons License
Catalogue	Only own recordings
Preview	Entire piece in (low resolution) MPEG Layer 3 (.mp3)
Protocol	Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http://)
Availability	World Wide Web
Features	Flash reader, downloadable art-covers
Website	www.onclassical.com

OnClassical is a small Italian independent record label based in Pove del Grappa, Italy. It features classical music mostly for piano or chamber ensemble.

History

Founded in April 2003 by Alessandro Simonetto, harpsichordist, producer and sound engineer, it enlists selected first-prize international contest winners and young talented musicians 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 to MP3 and other files.

The website started as a simple collection of classical music performances of some of the most important Italian pianists such as Maurizio Baglini, Roberto Prosseda, Gianluca Luisi, Alberto Nosè, Roberto Plano, Mariangela Vacatello and many 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.

OnClassical has no relationship with societies of rights collecting due to the facts it threats only public domain music.

The new version

With the last version of onclassical.com substantial innovationes have been introduced, such as the only publication of self-produced recordings and a careful selection. Albums are now sold in a CD-quality uncompressed format (PCM / WAV, at 44.1 kHz × 16-bit only. No DRM) are present on the recordings. Compressed formats files can however be found through the online stores such as Amazon, iTunes, emusic.

OnClassical logo

Each album is sold at a price based on the visitors preference. An alert informs the purchaser that artists earn 50% from profits given to downloadings of their albums.

The quality (of the new version)

OnClassical claims for each recording a high standard of professionalism. The recordings are made with particular care, capturing only natural sounds which are not successively manipulated. Renowned piano manufacturers, Bösendorfer, evaluated Alessandro Simonetto's recording made at Capri isle, in which he reproduced a performance by the pianist Gianluca Luisi, as excellent work ^[1].

Collection

Today the catalogue has c. 40 titles.

The Artists

• Accordion
  • Massimiliano Pitocco (on 2nd v.)

• Piano
  • Alessandra Maria Ammara (on 1st v.)
  • Maurizio Baglini (on 1st/2nd v.)
  • Yuri Blinov (on 1st/2nd v.)
  • Sandrine Erdely-Sayo (on 1st/2nd v.)
  • Pierre Feraux
  • Rustem Hayroudinoff (on 1st v.)
  • Gianluca Luisi
  • Aleksandra Mikulska (on 1st/2nd v.)
  • Alberto Nosè (on 2nd v.)
  • Antonio Palareti
  • Daniele Petralia
  • Roberto Poli
  • Roberto Prosseda (on 1st v.)
  • Giampaolo Stuani
  • Marco Tezza

• Harpsichord
  • Stefano Demicheli (OnClassical compilation)
  • Simone Stella

• Guitar
  • Kevin Kastning
  • Pablo Lentini Riva
  • Sándor Szabó

• Violin
  • Luca Fanfoni
  • Gigino Maestri (on 2nd v.)
  • Antonio Aiello

• Percussion
  • Saverio Tasca

• Double-bass
  • Daniele Roccato (OnClassical compilation)

• (Chamber) Ensembles
  • Duo Fanfoni-Savina
  • Sandro Materassi ensemble
  • Sonatori Fiorentini
  • TrisTango

• Orchestras
  • Stravinskij Chamber Orchestra

• Choirs
  • Don Kosaken Chor Wanja Hlibka (male soloists)
  • Elysium (female vocal quartet)

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Other info

Curiosities

• The name OnClassical means On[Line]Classical[Music] or On[about] Classical[ Music]). The motto of the label is A new Way to Think about Music.

• OnClassical company furnishes the largest quantity of the classical music for Jamendo pro: the commercial program for music licensing at jamendo.com. ^[2]

• Mr. Simonetto is also the founder of kunstderfuge.com, a large and free resource of classical music in MIDI files.

References

1. ^ Bösendorfer to Alessandro Simonetto's recordings
2. ^ Jamendo goes OnClassical, Jamendo goes OnClassical.

Other references

• Interview of Alessandro Simonetto by Enzo Fantin, IX/2005
• Interview by creativecommons.org, XI/2007
• Citation on Creative Commons – Italy, VI/2006

See also

• Copyleft
• Creative Commons
• List of record labels
• Open source record label

External links

• The official site
• The official weblog

General and useful links

• OnClassical at the Archive (free files in MP3 or Ogg formats)
• OnClassical relaunches at the Creative Commons' blog