FREE/BARGAIN — Media Deals (non-eBook/non-audiobook)

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

The information about classical-music.com seemingly having just one free download per month appears to be in error.

I have seen only one featured on their website for about a month, but it seems that they do have one or more other free downloads each month. Here, for example, is a free download, from just 2 weeks ago (the link is to that track or album; I checked, and found that the offer's still good at this moment. Remember: you've got to be a subscriber to their newsletter; if you are, and have signed in, a red "Download" button should appear over the thumbnail of the album. Click on it.

I can see that I have more research to do.

Yes, there are other free downloads during a month. However, I think that there is only one album given away. The remainder of the free music appear to be tracks.

You may think that tracks are not worth the trouble of finding and downloading. Fine. But some people (present company included) will take a free, good single track any day.

Classical-music.com seems to offer one free track per week and, often, if not always it will be called "this week's free download."

If you are a subscriber, you'll find offers for the free tracks in various newsletters that you will get from them. The title of a newsletter won't, as far as I can tell, say anything about a free track download, but if you skim over the newsletter you will find one--or maybe more--of them.

Here's a freebie for you to enjoy. It comes from a very recent Classical-music.com newsletter. It is Respighi's Trittico Botticelliano, as conducted by John Neschling. This is the URL. You must be logged in. If you are, you should see a red "Download Now" button on top of a thumbnail of the album from which this piece comes. Click on it. If you do not see the red button, go back to the log in page, log in, and go back to that page.

Here's a description of the free piece:
This week, our free download is the first movement of Trittico Botticelliano, 'La Primavera', by Respighi, courtesy of BIS. It is performed by Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège under the direction of John Neshling, and received four stars for performance and five for recording in the April issue of BBC Music Magazine.

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi sought inspiration for his piece Trittico Botticelliano from Botticelli’s paintings, which Respighi used as titles for each movement; La Primavera, L’Adorazione dei Magi, and La Nascita di Venere. This evocative masterpiece for a small orchestra took 17th and 18th-century musical influences, which Respighi brought into his own early 20th century style.

‘In the Trittico Botticelliano, ‘La Primavera’ is blithe and bouncy, the ensemble is crisp without seeming over-regimented’, writes Terry Blain. ‘If you are following Neschling’s excellent series, don’t hesitate to buy this latest instalment’.

ADDENDUM: Here is another piece that still happens to be free, at this moment. It comes from the week of April 17. It is Le ciel protège les héros from Lully's Alceste. (I think that I'll skip it, it's opera. Ack!)

[GtrsRGr8]

When I get through correcting errors and adding relevant information about the classical music providers, I'm planning to create an updated "roundup," in the pattern of the one in post #2054. That way, anyone can, at a glance, find out all of the most pertinent information about each provider.

I hope that one or more MobileReaders will profit from that revised roundup. In the meantime, I hope that the information that I'm providing by dribs and drabs will benefit one or more people!

[GtrsRGr8]

Christianbook.com has bargains tucked in all kinds of nooks and crannies on their website. Some of the webpages generally don't have deals that are all that great, in my opinion.

One of the webpages that generally has less-than-stellar deals, in my opinion, is called their "Daily Special Bargain Center." It's here. Today, however, they have a deal offered on that webpage that I think is worth posting--well worth posting.

Get Duck Dynasty, Season 1 on 3 DVDs, for only $3.99. That's only $1.33 per DVD. That's a super price, of course, for a DVD with quality content. These are closed captioned. The total length of all of the DVDs is approximately 330 minutes.

In case you've been hiding under a rock for several years, and have never heard of the Robertsons and Duck Dynasty, this describes the Duck Dynasty program and, to an extent, Season 1:
Ask anyone in Louisiana and they'll tell you that the Bayou State's favorite first family doesn't live in the governor's mansion but in the backwoods. Meet the Robertsons, who run Duck Commander, a homegrown mom-and-pop turned sporting empire selling top-of-the-line duck calls and decoys out of salvaged swamp wood. Their rags-to-riches story unfolds weekly on the hit show Duck Dynasty on A&E. There's business-savvy Willie, brother Jase, their respective wives Korie and Missy, patriarch and Duck Commander founder Phil, and Uncle Si. Dressed in camouflage and bandanas, this crew shows the world how a family can work together and be a success at the same time. Their booming business employs half the neighborhood, and each day brings a new set of challenges, but this clan meets them with a special brand of Southern know-how and humor. At the end of the day, the whole family enjoys some down-home time at matriarch Miss Kay's dinner table, ready to do it all again the next. See for yourself why Duck Dynasty has won millions of viewers and fans across America.

I know what some of you are thinking, "since it's a daily special, why did GtrsRGr8 wait until now to post it?" Answer: I just ran across it. But, too, ask yourself this question: "would I rather that it be posted late in the day, or not at all?" Just ask yourself.

[GtrsRGr8]

If you've been following this thread, you may remember that I am in the process of compiling a list of all of the sources of free classical music that I know about (see posts #2054 - #2056, just above this one).

Tuesdays seem like a big day (and I think that they are, in fact) for classical music giveaways, for some reason, and here is one that starts today. It comes from what I have referred to as "OML Library/Alexander Street," but is more properly known as "Open Music Library, an Alexander Street initiative."

It is Piano Trio, op. 15, by Czech Composer Bedrich Smetana. This particular recording is performed by Trio Atanassov, Perceval Gilles (violin), Sarah Sultan (cello), and Pierre-Kaloyann Atanassov (piano).

The composition has an interesting background (as do so many classical pieces, it seems). It reflects the fact that in Smetana's day (1824-1884), mortality rates (especially among children) were very high, and that those who were left behind experienced much grief because of the loss of their loved ones:
Smetana wrote this work in 1855 as a tribute to his eldest daughter Bedřiška, who died that year of scarlet fever. Smetana also lost his daughter Gabriela in 1854, his daughter Kateřina and friend Karel Havlíček in 1856, and his wife Kateřina in 1859.

You must have an account to download from OML Library/Alexander Street. I dug out (no, I'm not very organized) my password for the OML/Alexander Street website, when I was pleasantly surprised to find that apparently I am still logged in from my last visit to the site. Perhaps that will be your experience, too, if you have downloaded something from OML/Alexander Street before, but if not, log in first. Then click on one of the (very obvious) "download" buttons on the webpage linked to above.

OML/Alexander Street still speaks of "this week's" free download; however, I am still uncertain as to whether they come that frequently. Time will tell.

[GtrsRGr8]

Get a free download of Nikolai Lugansky's Rachmaninov Prelude (for classical music devotees, it is Op. 23 No. 5 Alla marcia in G Minor).

Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky performs this particular rendition of Rachmaninov's piece. The piece received four stars for both performance and recording in the May issue of BBC Music Magazine (BBC Music Magazine provides the free classical-music.com pieces). This performance has received accolades from other sources, too.

Classical-music.com provides some interesting, and potentially useful, information about this piece, so let me quote it:
Rachmaninov completed this particular prelude in 1901 in his set of ten preludes (Op. 23), all recorded on Lugansky's latest disc. Rachmaninov himself performed the piece's premiere in Moscow in 1903. Like the concertos, the preludes Rachmaninov wrote are exceptionally demanding for the performer, both technically and emotionally. The Alla marcia in particular requires immense agility, with octave leaps dominating the piece.

Here is Classical-music.com's procedure for downloading their freebies: 1) you must have an account (I think that if you are subscribed to their newsletter, you have an "account"); 2) if you have an acccount, you will have to log in (unless, perhaps, you've logged in to the site recently); 3) navigate to this webpage. You should see a bright red button, on top of a thumbnail of cover of the album from which the piece is taken (if you don't see the button, double-check to make sure that you are logged in); 4) click on that button. The download to your hard drive occurs automatically.

Classical-music.com states that they have free downloads each week (the offer for this current freebie is prefaced by "this week, our free download"). I think that that is probably accurate. The piece above is one of them. Very important: BBC/classical-music.com does not always mention, in the title part of their emails, that the message contains an offer for a free classical piece, when, in fact, it does. I didn't realize this until recently--I know that I must have missed out on a lot of free classical music downloads because of it! If you want to maximize the freebies that you get from BBC/classical-music.com (and who doesn't want as many good freebies as they can get; I ask you ), check every email message that you get from them! I've still got some research to do, but I think that they offer a free album once a month; the other free downloads are of a piece, or maybe two or more pieces, from an album.

[GtrsRGr8]

Get each one of the 5 parts of the DVD series The Spreading Flame, for only $3.49 each, at Christianbook.

Before I go any further, you need to know that the DVD's are coded "1," so are playable in Bermuda, Canada, United States and U.S. territories (only).

This is a series about the birth, growth, and development of Protestantism. I would state the titles of the different parts, but they're really not very descriptive. It's better for you to go to the individual webpages and read the descriptions.

The individual DVD's at Amazon are priced from $9.99 to $11.20. Oddly, the 5 DVD collection at Amazon is priced $79.99, significantly more than the price of all of the individual DVD's combined (it's out of stock at the present moment, anyway). But buy each one of the $3.49 DVD's at Christianbook.com, and your price for the entire set comes to only $17.45!

One thing to take into consideration is that, for this size order, the shipping and handling at Christianbook is $3.99. If you have Prime at Amazon, you may be able to get free shipping (and it will be faster), but the savings at Amazon on shipping still won't make the total price anywhere close to what you would get by buying the DVD's at Christianbook, and paying their $3.99 shipping for the entire order. And you can throw in another item, as long as it's $2.55 or less and it's still covered under the $3.99 shipping and handling charge. And free shipping, and upgrade of shipping for free, promotions at Christianbook are getting to be commonplace. Just get on their mailing list, and they will let you know about them.

The two DVD's that I spot-checked are 80 minutes long. It stands to reason that that is the length of each one of the DVD's. If so, the total viewing time for the entire set is 400 minutes, or almost 7 hours.

The ratings for all of the DVD's are generally very good, although there aren't enough of them for each individual DVD to get a really accurate picture. I have at least one of the DVD's of the set, and my memory is that it is very good, but not quite excellent. I would score it a 4 out of 5. BTW--in this case, the largest number of ratings, that I could find, are at Christianbook.

[GtrsRGr8]

Subscribers to Naxos' mailing list: you should have in your inbox already today their second offer to us, for the month, of the a free classical album.

Their first album giveaway of the month is one that I'll call the "here's-a-free-album-from-us-take-it-or-leave-it" offer. With this most recent offer, we get one free album from three choices (in most ways, the far more desirable giveaway in the month; but, boy, it's sometimes tough to make one choice out of what are sometimes three very desirable options!).

The second Naxos giveaway of the month is always around a certain theme. This month, the theme is the anniversary of the death of the great Austrian romantic composer Gustav Mahler.

If you're not on Naxos' mailing list already, it _might_ be too late to get in on this offer. However, if you want to try, my post #2054 gives instructions on how someone can get on their mailing list. _Perhaps_ they'll go ahead and send you the all-important email message with the offer, if you'll sign up right away.

_A reminder to Naxos subscribers, especially newer ones_: make sure to scroll _all_ the way down the message. That's where the offer and choices will be. The message will be long, and some, if not all, email providers will "truncate" (clip) a long email message, and you must click on a link to reveal the remainder of the message.

Oh, for those who have the equipment and "ear" to benefit from the better music formats, this offer will let you download in FLAC, as well as in MP3.

[GtrsRGr8]

When I think of Tuesdays, one of the things that I think about is classical music giveaways. It doesn't just seem so, but actually is the day of the week when there are more classical music giveaways (among those that I know of) than any other day of the week). I don't know why, maybe it's just coincidence.

Anyway, today follows that pattern. Classical-music.com's free download of the week is available now. It is Handel's Concerto a due cori No. 2, performed by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra:
. . . . our free download is the 6th movement, Allegro, of Handel's Concerto a due cori No. 2 in F, performed by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. It was awarded four stars for both performance and recording in the May issue of BBC Music Magazine.

Handel understood that it was necessary to entertain and occupy audiences who came to hear his concertos and he often provided musical 'appetisers' during the interludes of his larger works, including operas, oratorios and other major vocal compositions. Concerto a due cori - concertos for two wind choirs - is a prime example of this, expertly rendered by a prominent orchestra.

'Despite the widespread re-use of material, Handel's treatment of his themes is often at its most inventive,' writes George Hall. 'Notably in the largest movement here, the rollicking Allegro that ends 334 in thrilling fashion.'


For you procrastinating classical music lovers out there (you know who you are), you're in luck. Unlike the Naxos giveaway, that I spoke of in my last post, you can sign up for an account at classical-Music.com anytime until the next weekly giveaway starts, and still get this one.

If you've got, or will get, an account, sign in. Then, navigate to this classical-Music.com webpage. A bright red button, saying "DOWNLOAD NOW" should be appearing over the thumbnail of the album from which the piece is taken. Click on that. Like magic, your free music will be downloaded to your computer.

We've really had some good, free, classical pieces (and albums!) in the past. This week's classical-Music.com's freebie, though, is something that I can really get a handle on.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

<snip>
(BBC Music Magazine provides the free classical-music.com pieces).
<snip>
check every email message that you get from them! I've still got some research to do, but I think that they offer a free album once a month; the other free downloads are of a piece, or maybe two or more pieces, from an album.

To see and get the classical-Music freebies, look in the "From" column (usually, if not always on the far left side of your email program's inbox), for BBC Music Magazine, not for "classical-Music(.com).

[GtrsRGr8]

If I have ever posted an Apple product, I can't recall it. If anyone reading this post tells someone else that I made this post about an Apple item, I'll deny it--vociferously.

I didn't go looking for anything Apple, when I found this deal. Honestly, I didn't! It was an innocent mistake!

Maybe it's happening because of the lateness of the hour right now, and I have a brain fog.

Anyway, Apple Music currently has a promotion where someone can get Apple's music subscription service free, for 3 months. I quote: "Listen to your favorite music ad-free on all your devices, online or off. Start streaming today with a free three-month trial of Apple Music and cancel anytime . . . . new subscribers only. Plan automatically renews after trial." If you can listen to your music offline, does that mean that you can download music for keeps? I don't know.

This is certainly the best deal on Apple's music subscription service that I have ever seen, barring none (but, of course, like I said, I never go to the site)!

Apple says that they have 45 million songs in their catalog.

Here's a website where you can learn much more about this service. It also will let you know how to sign up. And, if you've read enough about it from me, in this post, that you already know that you want it, here, again, is another website where you can go to sign up.

Apple sure has a pretty website.

[tdanzie]

This is not a promotion. Apple Music has always been and is 3 months free for new subscribers.

[GtrsRGr8]

Get 4 hours of free music, suitable for relaxing, studying, or meditating.

There are 11 tracks (262 mb). They're all MP3's.

After doing a sampling of some of the tracks, it appears that all of them are instrumental (vs, say, the waves crashing on the beach or the distant thunderstorm with drops of water dripping down on something, kind of thing). This present kind of music is not my kind of "thang," but I feel sure that a lot of MobileReaders appreciate this kind of music, and have gotten a lot of benefit out of it.

This freebie is on the website of WeTransfer, a cloud-based computer file transfer service (think of something like DropBox or Google Drive, rather than something like Torrent).

I navigated to the WeTransfer webpage, following a link provided by Kim Komando on her website. The WeTransfer webpage URL seems to be free of affiliate links, but there is such a long string of numbers and letters in the URL that I wonder if an affiliate link might have been "snuck" in there. I want to be as "safe" as possible; therefore, I am providing the URL of the webpage at Kim Komando's website, which links to the music; I think that I have "cleaned" from her URL any affiliate links that might have been there.

[GtrsRGr8]

The way that I understand this, Naxos is offering an extra, un-preannounced giveaway of an album. Naxos generally gives away one MP3 album shortly after the first of the month, and another album a little bit later in the month; with that second giveaway you have a choice of one of three albums, and each album is available in your choice of MP3 and FLAC.

This current album comes from SWR Classic, a German company affiliated with Naxos:
SWR Classic is the label of the Southwest German Broadcasting Company (SWR), on which recordings of the internationally renowned SWR orchestras and ensembles, including outstanding archive recordings, are released in cooperation with Naxos Germany.

The album is Ludwig von Beethoven's Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123. The recording is by Roger Norrington. Additional credits go to Halgrimson, Kallisch, Aler, Miles, Stuttgart, Southwest Radio Vocal Ensemble, and North German Radio Chorus and Orchestra.

Read this glowing review from BBC Music Magazine:
The combined NDR [North German Broadcasting, G] Chorus and SWR Vocal Ensemble make a virtuoso chorus: alert, beautifully balanced, vibrant and thrillingly precise – even in the most taxing high writing. Much the same could be said about the orchestra, and like the chorus, the musicians seem to have digested Norrington’s ideas thoroughly: the phrasing is immaculate and often very affecting; even the sound of the vibrato-less lower strings in the mysterious, veiled prelude to the Benedictus has depth of tone and focused intensity – it’s in these more inward-looking passages that Norrington scores over Gardiner, perhaps his closest rival.

With this giveaway, you get your choice of MP3 or FLAC.

As with prior giveaways at Naxos, you must be on their mailing list in order to get the freebies. I think that it may be too late to sign up now, in order to receive this giveaway, but if you sign up right away, you should be all set by the time that the next one rolls around. Naxos' homepage looks as good as any other place to do your signing up.

REMEMBER--in order to see information about it, and actually to get the free download, you must scroll all the way down the email message that you get from Naxos about the free download.

This free offer is available until June 14, 2018.

[AnemicOak]

A couple of freebies at Google Play...

NASA Presents: AMS – The Fight for Flight (Documentary 2018)
https://play.google.com/store/movies...id=Zy4c-mIlcNY


Wonder - Jordan Massey (single)
https://play.google.com/store/music/...f5gco45ofi7mke

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

A couple of freebies at Google Play...

NASA Presents: AMS – The Fight for Flight (Documentary 2018)
https://play.google.com/store/movies...id=Zy4c-mIlcNY


Wonder - Jordan Massey (single)
https://play.google.com/store/music/...f5gco45ofi7mke

Gr8 finds! The documentary looks very interesting. I didn't recognize the singer of the pop song (but I never listen to modern pop), but the song was good, and the singer sounded talented.

ADDENDUM: NASA, itself (I didn't see, and didn't look for, the producer of the documentary that you mentioned--it may be NASA), is a rich source of free documentaries, and other videos--see the choices here. The ones here may be the same as the ones at the webpage above.

This has been mentioned before, but it has been awhile, I think--NASA is also a rich source of free ebooks--see the choices here. There may be some more elsewhere on NASA's website.