Naxos Music Library World (review)

Early in 2016, Naxos Music Library (NML) launched its World database, a collection of sound recordings representing different music cultures around the globe. The newest of Naxos’s audio databases, NML-World joins the company’s more established classical and jazz libraries. According to the 2016 price list, the annual rate for 5 simultaneous users of NML-World is $925 ($185 per user). Cost per user decreases with more seats, with a maximum of $4800 per year for unlimited users. Pricing can also vary for an institution subscribing as part of a consortium.

Interface

The NML-World interface has the same layout and features of Naxos’s other streaming music databases. Naxos’s search interface and results lists are, in my opinion, the best of the subscription-based streaming audio databases available for institutions. Most pages have an agreeably un-cluttered look. The keyword search box displays prominently on the upper right of every page within the database. Search results display concisely at the album level, with no duplicate or false hits, alongside corresponding catalog numbers and cover art thumbnails (which can be hidden by selecting the List view).

Clicking on a search result opens a page showing the individual track listing for the selected album. Tracks are listed under headings for their respective composers, but traditional songs each get the heading “traditional,” which is unhelpful given the high number of such songs in the field of world music and the importance of the performer in this repertoire. Viewing an album of traditional music performed by various artists, for example, one cannot ascertain the performer of each song until one clicks the Track Details button, which then displays performer names with instruments. This information, though, is occasionally erroneous, as in the album Classic Celtic Music, which lists all performers, including singers and pipers, as playing the fiddle. Tracks are often grouped into subsections under headings such as ‘Disc 1’ and ‘Disc 2’ when the groupings actually reflect the different sides of an LP. Album pages include links to PDFs, when available, of accompanying booklets and larger cover art reproductions. The booklet links occasionally lead to an error message and failure to open the file.

The user must click the box next to each track intended for listening, or click Select All. Clicking Play Selections then opens the HTML5 media player in a new, smaller window, allowing the user to continue exploring the database while the music plays in AAC format. The HTML5 player will occasionally hang up when using Firefox in a Windows environment, a problem easily remedied by clicking the Use Old Player button which opens Naxos’s legacy Flash player. The HTML5 player works more consistently using a Google Chrome browser and in a Mac OS environment. According to the FAQ on the NML Web site, standard audio playback is at “near-CD quality,” which in most cases was acceptable to my ears. For the purposes of this review, premium sound quality was not available but is an option at additional cost for subscribers with high-speed Internet. All of Naxos’s audio databases are streaming-only, without download options.

NML-World users can also browse by label, artist, and composer, as in Naxos’s other audio databases, or additionally by cultural group or geographic area. The geographic area browse allows the user to drill down from the continent level or to select an area from a map of the world. The name indexes, while useful, have some problems...