“There is easy-listening classical music: the kind of radio format that offers individual movements of works and runs one piece into another,” writes Anne Midgette in Wednesday’s (7/24) Washington Post. “There is serious classical music: entire 45-minute pieces. And as of today, both are available on Pandora … the online custom radio service…. Classical music did not figure large in its original plans. However, finding that its classical stations were performing slightly better than market share indicated they should, the company has made a significant push over the last three years to expand its classical catalogue. The result: three new classical stations, available as of today…. Figuring out how to get classical music into online formats has been a challenge at least since Apple rolled out iTunes—which still sells individual tracks as ‘songs’—in 2001.… Pandora Radio launched in 2005, but it didn’t add classical until 2008. But Pandora, like iTunes, has observed the growth of its classical listenership…. One reason classical music audiences for services like Pandora are growing may be that standard radio stations offer them fewer options. The decline of classical and jazz programming on terrestrial radio, [Pandora’s Michael] Addicott says, ‘is an opportunity for us to … give listeners that may have been displaced a place to go.’ ”
Posted July 25, 2013
