# Does NAXOS pay royalties? (to music publishers)



## Ben F (Jun 4, 2010)

Hello,

I have a question - I noticed that Naxos does not record modern and contemporary music. They sell their CDs for cheap... so I have a feeling that they only record out of copyright music so they don't have to pay royalties to publishers. Is that true? Can someone confirm this?


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## David58117 (Nov 5, 2009)

Ben F said:


> Hello,
> 
> I have a question - I noticed that Naxos does not record modern and contemporary music. They sell their CDs for cheap... so I have a feeling that they only record out of copyright music so they don't have to pay royalties to publishers. Is that true? Can someone confirm this?


They record modern composers...


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## Earthling (May 21, 2010)

Naxos has Arvo Part and Philip Glass and many other contemporary composers...


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

They've recorded dozens of contemporary composers. Michael Daugherty, Avner Dorman, Judith Zaimont, Gloria Coates, John Adams, John Corigliano, to name a few. Not all of their American Classics recordings are available in the USA, though, for copyright reasons.

Also, because Naxos has over 3000 titles, shops only stock a fraction of their range, so there are a lot of things you won't see, such as their recordings of Japanese composers (unless you live in Japan, that is). You can download a PDF of their full catalogue from their website.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*That's right*

They record any kind of music...but about the orchestras...unless you buy a very old version...expect to have the darkest orchestras you can have...Wit, Poland..."inconuto", "ignoto", etc. I often bought Naxos (e.g. the dead city by Korngold) and had to buy a better version...

Martin Pitchon, anti-naxos.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

> expect to have the darkest orchestras you can have...Wit


What do you mean "darkest"? Did Wit conduct some african-american orchestra?


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## dmg (Sep 13, 2009)

They've published recordings of popular film music still under copyright, so I'm guessing that they do.


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## palJacky (Nov 27, 2010)

actually they commissioned the 10 Naxos quartets by Peter Maxwell Davies.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

myaskovsky2002;123927 said:


> They record any kind of music...but about the orchestras...unless you buy a very old version...expect to have the darkest orchestras you can have...Wit, Poland..."inconuto", "ignoto", etc. I often bought Naxos (e.g. the dead city by Korngold) and had to buy a better version...Martin Pitchon, anti-naxos.


Martin, I really wish you could judge Naxos by the label it is today rather than the more humble enterprise it was when it first appeared. I respect your right to criticise older recordings by them as quite a few were at best mediocre (and it might be an idea for Naxos to partake in an occasional cull of their older recordings from their catalogue) but you criticise Naxos as if their standards have never improved - you couldn't be more wrong. Naxos win awards just like any other label and my experience is that these days they are far more likely to impress than disappoint.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Ben F said:


> Hello,
> 
> I have a question - I noticed that Naxos does not record modern and contemporary music. They sell their CDs for cheap... so I have a feeling that they only record out of copyright music so they don't have to pay royalties to publishers. Is that true? Can someone confirm this?


I don't think you've been paying very much attention to the Naxos catalogue, have you? As previous posters have stated, Naxos is issuing a constantly increasing number of important works by contremporary composers. In fact, I would go as far as to say that Naxos has become one of the most important labels in making 'modern' music more available and accessible to music lovers.

Long may it continue!

Now, go and download that Naxos catalogue and look at it properly!


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

*Improvement*


```
Martin, I really wish you could judge Naxos by the label it is today rather than the more humble enterprise it was when it first appeared. I respect your right to criticise older recordings by them as quite a few were at best mediocre (and it might be an idea for Naxos to partake in an occasional cull of their older recordings from their catalogue) but you criticise Naxos as if their standards have never improved - you couldn't be more wrong. Naxos win awards just like any other label and my experience is that these days they are far more likely to impress than disappoint.
```
Marco Polo is much better...but the price is not the same...

Martin


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

myaskovsky2002 said:


> Marco Polo is much better...but the price is not the same...
> 
> Martin


Why is Marco Polo better? Just because Naxos uses rather unknown mainly Eastern European orchestras doesn't mean they're worse.
And can you please start putting quotes in [QUOTE ][ /QUOTE] tags please? PHP code is rather annyoing to read.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

myaskovsky2002 said:


> Marco Polo is much better...but the price is not the same...


Strange comment. The label Marco Polo is just Naxos wearing a different colour suit. Indeed, many of the old Marco Polo recordings that have been deleted are reissued under Naxos! Both labels have featured the same artists recording similar genres and periods.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Awwwwwww.... now he is also going to hate Marco Polo and flood us with posts about that.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

One thing I've never been able to understand is why Naxos is a budget label yet Marco Polo discs once retailed at full price (i.e. at £15-99 rather than the £4-99 threshold which Naxos retained for a long time) despite being a sister label with similar packaging, same musicians etc - can anyone clear this up?


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

elgars ghost said:


> One thing I've never been able to understand is why Naxos is a budget label yet Marco Polo discs once retailed at full price (i.e. at £15-99 rather than the £4-99 threshold which Naxos retained for a long time) despite being a sister label with similar packaging, same musicians etc - can anyone clear this up?


Originally, Naxos produced cheap versions of mostly standard repertoire. Naxos assumed it would achieve a high volume of sales worldwide and, therefore, the budget price would yield a decent income for them (very narrow profit margin, but high volume). Marco Polo was intended more for the musical connoisseur, offering rarely (if ever) recorded repertoire which would have a much lower rate of sales - hence the higher price (and, therefore greater profit margin).

Over recent years, these lines have been blurred, with some seriously esoteric repertoire appearing on Naxos. I am not sure that any new recordings are released any longer on Marco Polo and many former Marco polo recordings are now being re-released on Naxos (eg the incomplete Havergal Brian series). I suspect that the volume of Naxos sales is now so great that they feel the best sellers will happily subsidise the more specialist recordings without the need to enlarge the Marco Polo catalogue.

By the way has anyone else had trouble with the Naxos website? I find it can take nearly a minute to load a page. I have tried a variety of browsers and have complained to Naxos. is it just me?


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

It is look like Marco Polo still releases new CD. I just knew week ago that there will be a new Spohr's CD from the String quartet series, see link Louis Spohr String quartet Vol.14 in Amazon and to be released on 25th Jan 2011.

Sometimes I also failed to enter Naxos website.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Thanks, DM.

I haven't been on their website very often but when I have I found some of the pages take so long to load that I invariably get 'timed out'. I can't recall ever getting onto their texts/translations facility with much success at all - even when I could I was more often than not confronted with a blank page.


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2011)

Same here with problems loading up Naxos webpages. I thought it was just me!


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## Ralfy (Jul 19, 2010)

This might determine whether or not a site is down:

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Ralfy said:


> This might determine whether or not a site is down


Oh, the site is never 'down' - only painfully slow in loading pages.


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