Streaming Music Services
The Library has several online streaming music services, covering classical, jazz, American, and folk music. Below are the databases along with publisher's descriptions and media player requirements. For help with the media players contact the IT Helpdesk (x3030 for faculty/staff or email helpdesk@bowdoin.edu; x5050 for students or email itss@bowdoin.edu). For assistance searching and using the databases, contact the Library Reference Desk (x3227).
- Contemporary World Music
- Contemporary World Music contains tracks that deliver the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database will contain important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music - Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more.
Uses: PC - Macromedia Flash Player or Windows Media Player; Mac - Macromedia Flash Player
For additional listening help see: Compatiblilty Overview - American Song
- American Song is a history database that allows people to hear and feel the music from America’s past. The database include songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers, and cowboys. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests and more.
Uses: PC - Macromedia Flash Player or Windows Media Player; Mac - Macromedia Flash Player
For additional listening help see: Compatiblilty Overview - African American Song
- "Documents the history of African American music in an online music listening service. The collection contains a diverse range of genres such as jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narratives, among others."
Uses: PC - Macromedia Flash Player or Windows Media Player; Mac - Macromedia Flash Player
For additional listening help see: Compatiblilty Overview - Classical Music Library
- "Includes recordings of music written from the earliest times (eg Gregorian Chant) to the present, including many contemporary composers. Repertoire ranges from vocal and choral music, to chamber, orchestral, solo instrumental, and opera."
Uses: PC - Macromedia Flash Player or Windows Media Player; Mac - Macromedia Flash Player
For additional listening help see: Compatibilty Overview - Database of Recorded American Music (DRAM)
- "Currently, there are over 1,200 CDs (7,500 compositions) on
DRAM. The basis for the collection is the diverse catalogue of American
music recordings by New World Records. From folk to opera, Native American
to jazz, 19th century classical to early rock, musical theater, contemporary,
electronic and beyond... other labels currently represented on the Database
include CRI, Albany, innova, Cedille, XI, Pogus, Deep Listening and
Mutable."
Uses: Quicktime Media Player.
For additional listening help see: Using DRAM - Streaming Performance Issues - Naxos Music Library
- "Naxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of
classical music available online. It includes the complete Naxos and
Marco Polo catalogues of over 130,000 tracks, including Classical music,
Jazz, World, and Folk music."
Uses: Windows Media Player.
For additional listening help see: Help with Naxos Players - Naxos Music Library Jazz
- "Naxos Music Library Jazz is one of the most comprehensive collection
of Jazz music available online. It offers close to 20,000 tracks of
jazz from over 1,850 albums. Naxos Music Library Jazz comprises Naxos
Jazz and the 22 labels of Fantasy Jazz. Naxos Jazz, along with Prophone
and Proprius, brings you the world of international Jazz, covering Sweden
and Scandinavian jazz artist. US-based Fantasy has the world's deepest
jazz catalogue and offers the very best in blues and R&B".
Uses: Windows Media Player .
For additional listening help see: Help with Naxos Players - Smithsonian Global Sound
- "Smithsonian Global Sound, produced in partnership with Smithsonian
Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical
and aural traditions. ... It includes the published recordings owned
by the non-profit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and the archival
audio collections of the legendary Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet,
Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and other labels. It also includes music
recorded around the African continent by Dr. Hugh Tracey for the International
Library of African Music (ILAM) at Rhodes University as well as material
collected by recordists on the South Asian subcontinent from the Archive
Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), sponsored by the American
Institute for Indian Studies."
Uses: Flash Media Player.
For additional listening help see: Compatibility Overview