Gramophone sold

[jayne lee wilson]

I didn't know it had been sold but had coincidentally cancelled my subs. Never heard of the buyers. Can't see how it can survive in the face of online free competition. Its real value is its review archive, tho the access to that has been poor since the site got hacked a couple years ago. Would be a great loss if that went the way of all print media. Hmm.

Er, hacked?... eh?...what!? I use the archive all the time (haven't yet needed to hack it), it's the best fun a musicbuyer can have! I paid an extra £2 a month on top of the usual subscription last winter to have access. It is, absolutely, the main reason for having a subscription to G. now. Great design, perfectly scanned pages and good searching too. Only problem is the time you can spend in there...

It's worth asking now - what realistically, do you want or expect from a 2013 Music Magazine? Features, essays, news... or not?
I guess the main thing for me is just to keep in touch with new releases, and half-decent reviewing of some of them (but I don't tend to rely on that & often make my own choice from lists & ads & online excerpts etc.)... But yes, reviews can be very annoying. Philip Clark's brusque dismissal of Venzago's Bruckner 6 was just disgraceful. Yet the next month he did a reasonable Collection survey of Beethoven's 1st... but far too fond of the fancy phrase. "Split-infinitive harmonies" in Bruckner's 1st?
But this month we still see Osborne, Gutman, Cowan, Achenbach in the reviews and much unusual and unfamiliar music too. The G. can still focus your attention. Problem with various online sources is, they can seem even more unreliable in their judgements than the worst of G. or IRR....

[muzzer]

Did it not used to have a searchable archive of reviews, as opposed to copies of back issues? It was not there when the site relaunched a couple of years ago after being hacked. The forum is good and Everard's v good on new tech etc but there's too much jollification in the main mag.

[jayne lee wilson]

Did it not used to have a searchable archive of reviews, as opposed to copies of back issues? It was not there when the site relaunched a couple of years ago after being hacked. The forum is good and Everard's v good on new tech etc but there's too much jollification in the main mag.

You seem obsessed with hacking up the wrong path...
I THINK I see where you're going wrong here...the all-new Gramophone archive was launched in 10/2012, with every copy available to view back to 1923. So using the excellent search engine you can locate any review you like, usually fairly quickly, but you know how it is with distractions....
But you do need a subscription to use it, as I said above.

Jollification?...Present issue is focussed on Britten and gives you plenty to get your teeth into (Operas, America, Survey of New releases) if you're so inclined.

What is all this about hacking anyway? Links to news items please?

[muzzer]

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/forum/general-discussion/welcome-to-the-new-gramophone-forum?page=1

Hacked. As in hijacked by an evil interloper. Not as in 'there's a crack so you don't need to pay'. Sorry, we appear to have been at cross purposes.