Naxos introduces new world music library

Classical specialist Naxos has unveiled a new comprehensive world music collection for subscribers to stream. The Naxos Music Library World represents more than 150 countries and more than 6,000 albums. The music has been pulled from a range of labels – including Smithsonian Folkways, ARC, Naxos World, and many independents – and will be continually updated with new additions. For now, the library is only a browser experience, but mobile apps for iOS and Android are expected later in the first quarter.

One of the facets that sets Naxos apart from other online music services is its dedication to metadata. Not only does it have professional musicologists assigning and checking the information on its tracks, but the world music library also makes full liner notes available to subscribers. Listeners can also search the collection by keywords such as label, country, or date in addition to title and artist.

“Because of our work on the data set, our libraries are leaps and bounds ahead of anything else out there,” Nick D’Angiolillo, Naxos’ director of licensing, said. “It can be used as a research or business tool, as you can quickly and easily cross search and find multiple recordings of same work, view everything on a single label’s roster, and access all the booklets for the recordings in one place.”