Music Online From Alexander Street Press

There are 51,888 albums and over 760,000 tracks (and growing) of streaming music in Music Online.

Music Online brings together, on a single cross-searchable platform, the entire suite of Alexander Street Press music in the SFPL subscription.  Every sound file in the collection is indexed by subjects, historical events, genres, people, cultural groups, places, time periods, ensembles, and more...

Because this resource is so rich with music and possibility we wanted to tell you all about the streaming music and bring your attention to the ability to create personal accounts in order to create and save playlists from one session to another. And you can even share them!
The quickest way to get to this resource is to click on eResources and then on eMusic.

The five individual databases that make up SFPL’s subscription are listed here and are worth exploring on their own. 

• American Song - 7,141 albums, equaling 122,211 tracksAmerican Song is a history database that allows people to hear and feel the music from America's past.  The database includes 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.

 

• Classical Music Library - 14,341 albums, equaling 252,928 tracks This ever growing collection includes recordings from the world's greatest labels including Hyperion, Bridge Records, Sanctuary Classics, Artemis-Vanguard, Hänssler Classic, Vox and many more. Coverage includes music written from the earliest times (e.g. Gregorian Chant) to the present, including many contemporary composers. Repertoire ranges from vocal and choral music, to chamber, orchestral, solo instrumental, and opera.

• Contemporary World Music - 16,701 albums, equaling 209,182 tracks
  This collection delivers the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database contains 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.

• Jazz Music Library - 10,756 albums, equaling 133,668 tracks Jazz Music Library is the largest and most comprehensive collection of streaming jazz available online — with thousands of jazz artists, ensembles, albums, and genres.

• Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries - 2,949 albums, equaling 42,405 tracks
  A virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. The collection provides educators, students, and interested listeners with an unprecedented variety of online resources that support the creation, continuity, and preservation of diverse musical forms.

The help screens are full of useful information about the specific database you are delving into as well as useful tips for searching.  It is possible to search by keyword, browse by genre, labels, people and composers and combine search terms on the "advanced search" screen such as keywords AND limiting by time period.

It is possible to start streaming music using your library card # and PIN immediately.  It is also possible to register for a personal account right in Music Online and create playlists AND share those playlists in different ways!