The Gramophone Listening Room will offer music that sits just outside core classical repertoire. Albums will be available for listening for a fixed period ahead of release, and users can choose to buy from listed online outlets with one click.
Users can also download a desktop widget for a feed of new albums and interviews, and occasional offers of free music and exclusive features.
The service was launched with Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle on the London Symphony Orchestra label, LSO Live. The recording captured an acclaimed live concert performance conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Barbican Centre in London.
Also currently in the Listening Room are vocal works by Benjamin Britten performed by Mark Padmore and Roger Vignoles, and a new release from independent label Harmonia Mundi, which was Gramophone Editor’s Choice in the magazine’s latest issue.
It also offers an Archive Classics podcast, in which award-winning journalist and broadcaster Stephen Johnson explores the riches of the historic record catalogue.
The new service follows the launch of Gramophone.net, an online archive of 85 years of music writing from the magazine.
“The Gramophone Listening Room confirms the magazine’s commitment to harnessing new technologies,” said Gramophone editor-in-chief James Jolly (pictured). “We believe it will become an important part of music-lovers’ listening and purchasing habits, and offer the record industry an exciting new way of reaching out to potential purchasers.”
The Gramophone Listening Room is powered by TellJack content delivery software. TellJack has previously been used to launch an album clubs for Classic Rock magazine and the DJ Gilles Peterson.
