Smithsonian Global Sound (online music purchase) review
Smithsonian Global Sound (online music purchase) review
Having heard about http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/ via this site, I've tried it out, and thought it might be useful to share my experience. To find the Irish music is easy--select "Ireland" from the pulldown menu listing various countries. There is some great stuff from the Smithsonian/Folkways back catalog. Field recordings of people like Willy Clancy, Michael Gorman, Margaret Barry, Joe Heaney, and Denis Murphy, as well as Irish musicians in North America (the volumes from Cleveland in the 1970s look interesting). There are also some collections of 78s and other such older recordings. They do have the current Smithsonian/Folkways catalog, like the albums by Kevin Burke and Brian Conway, but it probably makes more sense to buy the regular CDs for those.
You can add tracks to your shopping cart one by one, or by buying an entire album at once. The cost seems to be the same either way, $0.99/track, with some discounts for volume purchases. The ability to buy track-by-track is nice, since there are some volumes where I wanted only a fraction of the tracks (skipping songs for tunes, or leaving out 78s that I already have other recordings of). I didn't see an explanation of the volume discounting, but I received discounts of 5% for purchasing about 13 tracks (duo album by Michael Gorman and Willy Clancy) and 20% for purchasing over 40 tracks at once.
After selecting some tracks and giving your credit card information, the tracks appear in your "Download Manager", which is just a web page containing links to the audio files. A nice surprise was that the files are available both in MP3 and in lossless FLAC format. Since the older recordings are pretty noisy, the lossless files don't sound a whole lot better than the MP3s, but it's nice to have them available. Also, extensive liner notes (scanned from the original LP jackets and inserts) are available for many of the albums, and can be downloaded for free.
However, there were some not-so-nice surprises as well. There doesn't seem to be a way to download all your purchased tracks at once, so you have to individually save all the linked files. On the "Download Manager" page, the tracks are listed in no apparent order (not by artist, album, or even alphabetically). The tracks are only available for 24 hours after purchase, so folks with slow connections (or anyone interested in the lossless FLAC files, which are huge) should be careful. (It's also possible to order custom-made CDRs, probably more expensive but a better option for those without high-speed net connections.)
I definitely recommend checking out the site--some great music that you may not find anywhere else. Could be more convenient, but it's definitely easier than combing through used record piles to find the original LPs.
Smithsonian Global Sound (online music purchase) review
Smithsonian Global Sound (online music purchase) review
Having heard about http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/ via this site, I've tried it out, and thought it might be useful to share my experience. To find the Irish music is easy--select "Ireland" from the pulldown menu listing various countries. There is some great stuff from the Smithsonian/Folkways back catalog. Field recordings of people like Willy Clancy, Michael Gorman, Margaret Barry, Joe Heaney, and Denis Murphy, as well as Irish musicians in North America (the volumes from Cleveland in the 1970s look interesting). There are also some collections of 78s and other such older recordings. They do have the current Smithsonian/Folkways catalog, like the albums by Kevin Burke and Brian Conway, but it probably makes more sense to buy the regular CDs for those.
You can add tracks to your shopping cart one by one, or by buying an entire album at once. The cost seems to be the same either way, $0.99/track, with some discounts for volume purchases. The ability to buy track-by-track is nice, since there are some volumes where I wanted only a fraction of the tracks (skipping songs for tunes, or leaving out 78s that I already have other recordings of). I didn't see an explanation of the volume discounting, but I received discounts of 5% for purchasing about 13 tracks (duo album by Michael Gorman and Willy Clancy) and 20% for purchasing over 40 tracks at once.
After selecting some tracks and giving your credit card information, the tracks appear in your "Download Manager", which is just a web page containing links to the audio files. A nice surprise was that the files are available both in MP3 and in lossless FLAC format. Since the older recordings are pretty noisy, the lossless files don't sound a whole lot better than the MP3s, but it's nice to have them available. Also, extensive liner notes (scanned from the original LP jackets and inserts) are available for many of the albums, and can be downloaded for free.
However, there were some not-so-nice surprises as well. There doesn't seem to be a way to download all your purchased tracks at once, so you have to individually save all the linked files. On the "Download Manager" page, the tracks are listed in no apparent order (not by artist, album, or even alphabetically). The tracks are only available for 24 hours after purchase, so folks with slow connections (or anyone interested in the lossless FLAC files, which are huge) should be careful. (It's also possible to order custom-made CDRs, probably more expensive but a better option for those without high-speed net connections.)
I definitely recommend checking out the site--some great music that you may not find anywhere else. Could be more convenient, but it's definitely easier than combing through used record piles to find the original LPs.
Doug.
# Posted on July 10th 2005 by tedium
Re: Smithsonian Global Sound (online music purchase) review
Fascinating to browse and hear the samples! I was too mean to buy anything but will pop back when I've more time...
# Posted on July 11th 2005 by Mark Harmer