Classical music webcast service Medici.tv, which has just celebrated its first year of operation, has reported figures showing that the site has recorded 330,000 unique visitors and 2.3 million concert viewings since launching online.
Medici.tv now has over 10,000 registered users and viewers from 185 countries, with the United States, France, Switzerland, Germany and Japan clocking up the most time on the site.
The company reports the average length of a visit has increased steadily since its May 2008 launch and is now approaching 10 minutes. Figures show that 15% of users watch concerts continuously for over 30 minutes. A dozen concerts have been watched over 50,000 times and several have been watched almost 100,000 times.
In total, Medici.tv has distributed 68 live and catch-up concerts including Europa Konzert in Moscow with the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle, Pierre Boulez and the Orchestre de Paris under the Louvre Pyramid in France and the Nobel Prize concert conducted by Sir J.E. Gardiner. The site has also formed a partnership with Radio France for the concert series “Déclic” and “d’Une Rive à l’Autre.”
The content on the site is a mixture of free streaming, subscription packages and paid-for downloads.
As well as live events, Medici.tv offers a catalog of over 300 video-on-demand programs to stream as part of a subscription package for €5 ($7.10) for 24 hours of access, €7 ($9.90) per month or €39 ($55.30) for six months. Content is also available to download in DRM-free format for €5 to €9 per film ($7.10 to $12.80).
Medici.tv is available around the world. Free registration is required to view content for longer than three minutes and also gives users exclusive discounts on products such as catalog films.
The technology was tested at the Verbier festival in July 2007 but it wasn’t until May 2008 that Medici.tv officially launched as a Web site with catalog and a supporting magazine.
