Mecca Has Arrived For Tin-Can Era Recording Junkies
"The Library of Congress has unveiled a new website, the National Jukebox, with materials currently controlled by Sony Music. Users can stream — for free — some 10,000 sides. All the pre-1925 records from what was once the Victor Talking Machine Company have been made available, though who knows how many have disappeared in the years since...The Jukebox offers quite a variety of sonic bites, from classical to jazz, novelty acts to presidential speeches. There are more than 1300 recordings of operatic repertoire, more than 1200 classical sides and 32 recordings of yodeling. In that mix are some very tasty treats. And for the diehard opera buffs, there's the completely digitized "Victrola Book of Opera" from 1919, which includes synopses of over a hundred operas and discographies of those works presented as excerpts."
