Classical Music and Dance

The idea was all down to a large record label called Naxos and Staffordshire county councils Music Officer Andrew Baker. It really is simple to do and worthwhile.

Basically all that you need to do is to go down to Staffordshire Library with your library card and get a free password. Then you go back home and that password will get you onto the Naxos site and give you the access to 5500 CD’s worth of material… that’s an unimaginable amount of music tracks… more than 50,000 songs.

“We are trying to encourage people to explore music” Andrew told me. “It’s an amazing amount of music that people can listen to whenever they want to on the internet.”

Staffordshire county council is the first in the country to implement this new listen live facility. Keeping up with times this is the way the industry is going and you lucky people get to be the first use it.

“I know one of our users who as soon as he gets into the office logs on and just listens all day long” Andrew was saying proudly.

The Naxos music site has been up for around a year but only recently has the joint venture between the council and Naxos taken place.

“People can search music from a particular year, or period if they wish and it’s a fantastic way of really getting yourself into the spirit of a time period… it brings it all too life.”

The music on Naxos is a mix of classical, jazz and period music. It’s a chance to listen to something you may not otherwise listen to for free. Including Chinese music… you know you want to… it’s Chinese Music.

“We were worried that when the download revolution came we wouldn’t have the desire for CD’s from the library like we used to but it really has never fallen.” Andrew said “Now we have got this download facility ourselves for library members to use.”

If you are interested in the music downloads then log on to www.staffordshire.gov.uk or go direct to the Naxos site www.naxosmusiclibrary.com.