Questions and answers

Some frequently asked questions about Music & Vision

What is M&V ?

Music & Vision is a classical music magazine published daily in English.

It is available only on the internet, and is free of charge to read (apart from any internet connect time charges that you might incur, which vary from country to country, and between service providers).

We publish high quality features and regular series, including book, CD, DVD, concert, opera, downloadable music and website reviews, interviews, editorials, international news from the music community and concert listings from around the world.

How can I advertise in M&V?

We have a page dedicated to advertising information. Please look at this page for further information, and then contact us if you can't see the information you need there.

How can I find a particular article in M&V?

Music & Vision has published at least one article every day since 1 January 1999, so thousands of articles are available. The Freefind search engine indexes our entire site every week, and this currently provides the best method to find an article quickly. Use the search box on our home page.

Alternatively, you'll find a complete and up-to-date list of our articles (in chronological order, most recent first) on our contents pages, and you should be able to use your browser software's 'find' or 'search' facility to locate keywords in our article titles and descriptions.

To keep up to date with our latest articles and features, our Announce! service provides ad-hoc updates by email, with links to take you directly to the newest material. Information about signing up for this service is on our newsletters page.

Alternatively, our home page lists everything published during the last month, so you can visit once per month without missing anything.

Finally, for those too busy to visit regularly, our monthly newsletter provides an overview of each month's magazine content. The latest newsletter is available immediately via our autoresponder - just follow the instructions on our newsletters page.

How can I watch your video extracts?

We use Apple Quicktime 7 format to stream video to your browser.

To view the video content provided with many of our DVD reviews, you need a reasonably fast modern computer. To hear the associated sound, you'll need a correctly-configured sound card and speakers (or headphones).

You also need an appropriate browser plugin or an Apple Quicktime player. The browser plugin should be downloaded automatically when you visit a page containing streamed video information.

If this doesn't work, you can download a free-standing player from the Apple website. We provide a direct link to the streaming video on our sample pages, and you should be able to copy this link and paste it into box provided by Quicktime when you select Open URL in new player.

How can I listen to your music extracts?

Music & Vision uses Real Audio G2 format to stream sound extracts to your computer.

To hear the audio content provided with many of our CD reviews and occasional other articles, you'll need a modern computer with a correctly-configured sound card and speakers (or headphones).

You also need an appropriate player. A free RealPlayer can be downloaded from the Real Networks website. It isn't necessary to buy anything from Real Networks - their free player is all you need. Find it on the Real Player pages. The company regularly moves the link to its free player, and renames it. You may be offered various download options with other bundled software, often with free trials. In contrast to Real Networks' recommendations, we strongly recommend the 'minimum configuration' option with no other bundled software.

Other media players (e.g. Windows Media Player) may not play the sounds on our pages correctly. If you use a Windows PC, a coded called Real Alternative is available and this may save you having to install Real Player.

At certain times of day, when the net gets congested, or if you have a very slow connection, you may experience breaks in the playing of streaming audio and video.

Why is your text unreadable on my screen?

This website uses simple HTML code and has been tested using modern versions of the Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera and Safari web browsers, on both Apple Mac and Windows PC computers.

Music & Vision will not work with Netscape version 2 - a very old program found very rarely these days, if at all - in which much of the text is unreadable. (You may get satisfactory results by switching off the automatic display of images.) For most of our readers, this shouldn't be a problem.

We take great care to ensure that the magazine can be read by the visually impaired.

How do I get my book, CD, DVD or other items reviewed?

Please read our special page about sending review material.

Can you help publicise our concert?

Yes - concert listings are free of charge in Music & Vision although we cannot guarantee to publish all material received. Please use the special form to send us details of forthcoming concerts, and try to provide at least one method for other readers to obtain further information - preferably a website address, email address or phone number. For better exposure, please send details well in advance of the event - preferably at least a month before.

For higher profile coverage, please consider advertising on the Music & Vision website or in our monthly newsletter.

Will you review our concert?

We do not have the resources to provide a global concert review service at this stage. However, if you can arrange for a reviewer to attend and write about your concert, we will consider the review for publication.

Can I write for Music & Vision?

Music & Vision's Editor, Basil Ramsey, extends an open invitation to anyone who can write knowledgeably about music to submit articles for consideration. We accept copy in most usual formats. Please use our contact form to make initial contact.

We also publish readers' letters.