We are thrilled to announce the launch of our brand new streaming service, created specifically for classical and jazz lovers. Plans for the service have been gestating for several years now, and whilst we’ve been gradually building the infrastructure we have also been listening to feedback from our customers, labels, composers and musicians. It is now here and ready to use.

Key features and catalogue

Whether you want to listen to old classical favourites, discover unfamiliar composers and their works, or follow the latest emerging jazz artists, the Presto Music streaming service will guide you in your musical journey, with reviews, features and interviews combined with the highest possible fidelity of any available music streaming service.

We’re very pleased to be able to offer over 200,000 albums at CD-quality sound, and over 34,000 (including almost all new releases) at ‘Hi-Res’ audio quality (up to 24-bit, 192kHz). We have digital booklets for over 70,000 albums, the ability to download albums for offline listening on mobile, and a search engine built for classical music (which allows easy discoverability of composers, works and artists).

Every second counts: ensuring composers and musicians are fairly remunerated

With our new streaming service, we move away from the pay-per-track model adopted by all the major streaming services and instead use a pay-per-second model. As many readers will know, classical pieces vary enormously in length, with a Mahler Symphony often racking up over an hour for just 4 ‘tracks’ (movements) whereas a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations would generally cover 33 tracks in under an hour. This means that on other services a single listen to the Bach album generates more than eight times the revenue than a listen to the Mahler Symphony.

Furthermore, on the major streaming services, classical and jazz listening is also diluted by other genres. We suspect that the average classical and jazz listener will often make specific time to listen to music, sitting down and focussing on what they are hearing, and as such they’ll listen to a lot less music during the day than a typical pop or casual listener who may choose a playlist and press play first thing in the morning, and then leave it running all day until they go to bed at night. By focussing on just classical and jazz we avoid this dilution problem, and ensure that the labels, composers and musicians receive their fair share of revenues.

Available on most common platforms: mobile, tablet and web

Available as Android and iOS apps, and as a web browser version, the service brings our renowned composer, works, artist, and genre cataloguing, and our deep archive of editorial reviews, interviews and recommendations, into the world of streaming, all at the highest possible audio quality. We hope that customers old and new will look forward to engaging with the music they love, and discover fresh musical possibilities.

Built on the unique and truly scalable MPEG4-SLS codec, listening on the move is never a problem - the audio will continue seamlessly without any buffering even when moving in and out of areas of poor mobile connection.

We are thrilled to be starting out on this new adventure, and as valued customers we hope that you join us. Why not see for yourself and start your free 30-day trial here?

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P.S.: Presto Music's Streaming Service is currently only available in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and major European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Iceland and Switzerland)

from www.prestomusic.com