Another look at internet classical music services

Last year I began trying out Internet classical music services. I signed up for Last.FM and Pandora and Live365 and I've had varying levels of satisfaction with them all. Initially I had a hard time getting my mind around how these things worked, so I just gave in and allowed the music to play out as they decided. Subsequently I've tried a few other sites including ShoutCast, imeem.com and musicovery.com. With the exception of Live365's Contemporary-Classical.COM all these stations have a serious drawback for serious classical music listeners -- they seem to only play tracks not complete works of music. In a post on January 15Th in 2008 I complained about how some of Bruckner's symphonies were being broadcast on FM station only as individual movements rather than the entire piece. Time seemed to be the issue on FM, but is there something more to it? Is there some legal issue where the copyright holder is enforcing some claim? Is it the lack of classical music exposure and appreciation that causes the programmers to focus on "tunes" and not art?

The issue has become more personal as I've recently purchased a Chumby internet radio. It's a $200 wireless Linux computer, connected to my home wireless network. It's about the size of a large softball with a touch screen, USB inputs and decent on board speakers. Part alarm clock, part game console, part news ticker and part radio it's replaced my old FM radio. Unfortunately only Pandora and Shoutcast are built in, though there are some poorly documented hacks to enable others Internet broadcasters like my favorite Contemporary-Classical.COM via Live365. Pandora is what I've chosen to listen to each night. The programming, based on my personal targeted "genome" is actually very satisfying -- except for the track limitation. I was listening to Richard Strauss's "Alpine Symphony" the other night. Just as the music "climbed to the top of the mountain" it switched to something else. I'm sorry but I find that annoying and disrespectful to the composer.

Kudos to Contemporary-Classical.COM, though. They seem to play entire pieces, not just tracks. A few week back they broadcast all 20 sections of Olivier Messiaen's 'Vingt Regards su L'Enfant Jesus'. They've exposed me to several new composers and lots of intriguing music. Good for them!