Naxos (company)

Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres.[2][3][4] The premier label is Naxos Records which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about 17 labels including Naxos Records, Naxos Audiobooks and Naxos Books (ebooks). There are about an additional 50 labels that are independent of the Naxos Musical Group with a wide range of offerings.

Naxos Records
Parent companyHNH International[1]
Founded1987 (1987)
FounderKlaus Heymann
GenreClassical, jazz, modern, audiobooks, ebooks
Country of originUnited Kingdom (Hong Kong)
LocationHong Kong (People's Republic of China)
Official websitenaxos.com

The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.[5]

Naxos Records

Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. The company was known for its budget pricing of discs,[6] with simpler artwork and design than most other labels.[7] In the 1980s, Naxos primarily recorded central and eastern European symphony orchestras, often with lesser-known conductors, as well as upcoming and unknown musicians, to minimize recording costs and maintain its budget prices.

In more recent years, Naxos has taken advantage of the expiring copyrights of other companies' studio recordings by selling discs remastered from gramophone records. Examples include the complete recordings of opera singers such as Enrico Caruso, Amelita Galli-Curci, and Titta Ruffo and the 1934 world première performance of Howard Hanson's opera Merry Mount. Legal restrictions prevented some of these recordings from being sold in the United States. Naxos has also recorded the music of contemporary composers, including Leonardo Balada, Bechara El-Khoury, Laurent Petitgirard, and Alla Pavlova. The label has branched out into jazz, world music, and books on musical subjects. Naxos Spoken Word Library contains non-music products, such as audiobooks and radio dramas.[8]

Since the 1990s, Naxos has recorded with British and American orchestras, such as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

The company produces Super Audio CDs, DVD-Audio, and Blu-rays.

In 2003 it began a paid subscription service for listening on the Internet that offers its complete catalogue and the Naxos Music Library.[9] As of 2019, subscribers had access to 2,225,190 tracks on its 145,755 discs, though these numbers were increasing by nearly 100 new discs a day.[10] In 2015 it launched a high-definition download and streaming service, ClassicsOnline HD•LL, with a catalogue drawn from a number of classical record labels.[11]

Business model

Naxos generally avoids repertoire duplication. Because of that, its classical repertoire has broadened to include fringe works, such as the symphonies of Nikolai Myaskovsky, contemporary classical music, and the works of lesser-known composers, such as Alexander Glazunov and Louis Spohr. It has produced a series of little-recorded works, such as the American Classics series, Canadian Classics series, Japanese classical music, Jewish-American music, wind band music, film music, and early music, many of which are première recordings.

Distribution

Naxos Global Logistics, based in Poing near Munich, was founded in 2008[12] to expand the services offered to its distributed labels, including manufacturing, marketing, and licensing.[13]

Awards

In 2005 Naxos won the Label of the Year Award[14] at Classic FM/Gramophone awards.

Other divisions

See also

References
  1. Who is HNH? Naxos Classical
  2. Anne Midgette (November 8, 2012). "Naxos's 25 years of reinventing itself". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  3. Matthew Gurewitsch (August 26, 2013). "Bounty on a Budget". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  4. Mark Lawson (May 9, 2012). Trainspotting screenwriter and playwright John Hodge; Naxos Records; Edward VIII deposed. Front Row (radio broadcast). BBC. 6:30 minutes in. Archived from the original on 2020-04-19.
  5. Anson, Philip (2 September 2002). "Naxos at 15: An Interview with Klaus Heymann". La Scena Musicale. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  6. "Naxos Records Founder Klaus Heymann". WQXR-FM. 25 November 2012. Archived from the original on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  7. Mike Osborne (January 13, 2013). "Naxos: The Little Record Label That Could (And Did)". Weekend Edition. NPR. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  8. "Labels". naxos.com. Naxos. 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  9. Martin Cullingford (August 4, 2010). "Naxos founder Klaus Heymann on what lies ahead for classical recordings". Gramophone. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  10. David Yearsley (September 6, 2019). "The Future of Listening". CounterPunch. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  11. Everard, Andrew (6 January 2015). "Naxos launches new high-definition music streaming and download service". Gramophone. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016.
  12. "Naxos Global Logistics on the Classical:Next website". C:N Net. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  13. "Company Profile". NGL Naxos Global Logistics GmbH. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  14. Jury, Louise (2005-09-29). "Conductor dropped by record label returns in triumph with Bach award". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016. The label of the year award went to the bargain-priced record company Naxos, which was praised for its 'visionary zeal'.
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