Reissue of The Complete Alfred Deller Recordings – For the first time in over 20 years, the complete Vanguard recordings by countertenor Alfred Deller will be released, on the Musical Concepts label. There will be six volumes – encompassing 50 original LPs on 35 CDs, restoring to the worldwide marketplace these groundbreaking early music recordings. Vol. 1 – Folk Songs and Ballads – will be released next week. All of Deller’s recordings will also be available for digital downloads. Of the 50 LPs, 20 were not previously included in any CD reissue. Vanguard’s founder Seymour Solomon recorded Deller in the early 1950s and the first recordings met with instant success. Beyond his focus as a countertenor, Deller pioneered in early music as leader of The Deller Consort. On the Vanguard recordings, he worked with some of the leaders of the early music movement, including harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, and Nicolas Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus Wien. Musical Concepts is distributed by Koch Entertainment.
Musicians Using Download Cards to Sell Their Music – Some musicians in the Duluth area are selling their fans a plastic card showing the cover of their latest CD, and on the back is a code you type into Soundtrax.com to download a song or the entire album. The musicians hope this new card-driven download system will become as common as CDs for sale at their concerts and coffeehouses across the country. The idea is to provide something tangible to sell after performances, with pop music increasingly sold as downloads. Soundtrax is also a cheaper alternative than producing a CD. There is no DRM, so the songs can be copied or burned into CDs or any MP3 players. A Duluth recording studio engineer said “The way kids perceive music is different. It’s back to the singles market of the ‘50s.” Some bands even make most of their profits off songs turned into downloadable ringtones.
