Hoopla expands music offerings

SANDUSKY — Hoopla Digital, a digital library service available at nearly all public libraries in Ohio, including the Sandusky Library, has added to its music offerings with a famous classic rock album and new classical music offerings. Hoopla is a digital service, free to patrons and accessed with a library card. The service offers movies, TV shows, audiobooks, comics, documentaries and music. It can be accessed on a website and using an app for smartphones or tablets. Movies can be streamed on Roku using Roku's Hoopla app. Hoopla's music offerings have been one of the service's best features, and the music section is particularly strong in its classic rock offerings, which include the Beatles' solo albums, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. Hoopla and the various paid streaming services recently added "The Concert for Bangladesh," the 1971 concert featuring George Harrison and his friends. The album previously had not been available for streaming. The musicians on the album also include Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell. The songs include many of Harrison's most popular tunes, both as a Beatle and as a solo artist. Music fans should note that there's another public library streaming music service, Freegal, and there's little overlap between the two services, as they have deals with different record companies. Classic rock fans, for example, would want to use Freegal to access music by AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Cheap Trick and Pearl Jam. Freegal is less popular than Hoopla at Ohio public libraries, but northern Ohio libraries that offer it include Cleveland Public Library, Birchard Libary in Fremont and Bellevue Public Library. All three of those libraries, and many other local libraries, are members of CLEVNET, a northern Ohio library network. A library card from a CLEVNET library can be used in any other CLEVNET library. CLEVNET libraries typically ask that a user have only one card from a CLEVNET library, but a Bellevue or Fremont card can be used at the Sandusky Library. Hoopla also has been making major additions in recent months to its classical music catalog by adding music from independent record labels such as Naxos. While Hoopla has always had plenty of classical music, the latest additions represent a major expansion. One gap in Hoopla's music offerings is that the service does not offer music by The Beatles, although it has a large number of solo albums from Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Catherine Zappa, Hoopla's vice president for digital acquisitions, said in an interview that Hoopla has continued to try to offer the Beatles' music. "Hopefully, the time will come at some point," Zappa said. "I don't know when that will be." Zappa said Hoopla currently has more than 2 million titles available to be checked out. One criticism of Hoopla has been that it lacks the biggest hits in its offerings of movies and TV shows. In some cases, box office hits eventually become available, Zappa said. For example, Hoopla currently is offering titles from the A24 movie company. "Everything Everywhere All at Once," which won the Academy Award for best picture, was available through August, and "The Whale," starring Brendan Fraser, currently is available. Hoopla does have strong niche offerings. For example, it offers many British mystery TV shows. Hallmark movies are offered in the BingePass area of the site. There are a number of offerings from cult director David Lynch, and Woody Allen is well represented. One weakness of Hoopla compared to Freegal and paid music streaming services, such as Spotify, is that Hoopla does not allow patrons to make playlists of songs from different albums. Hoopla is currently in conversations with record labels about an offering similar to a playlist, Zappa said. "You may see something like that happen," she said. Zappa notes that music offerings on Hoopla are not limited to the site's music section. The BingePasses section of the site offers access to Medici TV, which provides videos of classical music and jazz performances, including opera and ballet performances. In addition, the BingePasses area offers access to Fret Zealot, in which library patrons can get lessons in playing the guitar, bass and ukulele. If you want to learn to play "Welcome to the Jungle" on guitar, now's your chance, Zappa said. Zappa is no relation to Frank Zappa, a music artist well represented on Hoopla, but she knows Ahmet Zappa, the famous musician's son. "We've spoken on several occasions," Zappa said. Coming soon The Register asked what Hoopla plans to add in the near future, and in response, the company released a list of new offerings for September. 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