NPR outdid all other media in the Webby Awards from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Three of the NPR’s seven awards went to the new NPR music site: nprmusic.org. They won two awards for Best Music Site, as well as a video entry related to the ever popular All Songs Considered.
NPRMusic.org leads a collaboration among a dozen or so radio stations across the country that contribute content to the site. The classical portion of the site is a little slim, but the stories are always good and NPR has outstanding people producing the features.
Unfortunately, NPR online is almost the only place you can find classical music at NPR. In January 2007 the company laid off most of its on-air classical music staff (full disclosure: I was one of them), and sent their two flagship programs, Performance Today and SymphonyCast to American Public Media where they are thriving. Classical music to NPR was what my family would have called “the mud puppy.”
In an effort to attract younger audience, NPR has been actively pursuing music from non-classical genres — pretty much like the rest of the world. I sort of felt the classical programs set them apart. Just saying…
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I like that NPR is partnering with stations for content, but I wish they would also solicit and use material from other stations than their few initial partners (for classical they use WGUC, WGBH, APM, and anyone else?)
Does anyone know if they will be expanding to work with other stations?
They’ve had playlist mixes that include classical (Mother’s Day recently http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103679271), so classical music is reaching the ears of listeners who are interested music of all different types, not just classical.
They do seem stuck on a narrow mix–cellist Julian Lloyd takes up quite a bit of this list and a previous one was all about Kiri Te Kanawa, to the exclusion of many others.
-Mona
(disclosure: Mountain Stage, which originates from WV Public Broadcasting, is part of NPR Music)