Any way it's told, the story of Nonesuch Records, through its now 45-year history, is and has always been about the music. FLYP, a new online multimedia magazine, has dedicated its latest issue in its entirety to telling that story, through 50-plus pages, more than a dozen articles, and scores of images, video interviews and performances, streaming audio, personal journal excerpts, an interactive name-that-tune, and a jukebox of songs to select and play from the Nonesuch catalog.

The musical focus is clear from the start of the issue, when a moving gallery of record covers, set to songs from the albums, leads users through just as many genres of music from the past four-and-a-half decades. That leads naturally into "No Such Label," the opening article by writer John McAlley, examining just what has made the label one he places among the "most enduring success stories in music industry history."

McAlley takes readers back to the very beginning, speaking with Jac Holzman, the founder of both Nonesuch and its original parent company, Elektra Records, about the company's early days and his initial mission to make quality classical recordings available to a wider audience. (For more on the company's founding and Holzman's first-person account, including an audiovisual walk through those famous early LP covers, see the follow-up story, "The Big Idea.")

From there, the article follows the label through the 14-year tenure of its first leader, Tracey Sterne, which included the introduction of the famed Nonesuch Explorer Series and a transition to a more eclectic repertoire, and then to its modern incarnation, which dates back to 1984 and the arrival of its current president, Bob Hurwitz. You can get that story direct from the source in video interviews with Bob and with Nonesuch's senior vice president, David Bither.

And with that, it's back to the matter at hand: the music—a video montage of dozens of artists from the past 25 years of Nonesuch Records, explaining what making music means to them and, through performance footage, showing how it's done. Watch it here.

Over the next series of articles, FLYP takes a closer look at the variety of styles and sounds that have gone into the making of the label"

• In "Introducing the World," McAlley looks at Nonesuch's world music, from the groundbreaking Explorer Series to a partnership with World Circuit that began with Mali's "Songbird," Oumou Sangare, and brought with it the phenomenon of the Buena Vista Social Club (there's more on the unexpected hit in "When Lightning Strikes"), to the signing of global superstars like Caetano Veloso, Youssou N'Dour, and Amadou & Mariam.

• In "Shock of the New," it's Hurwitz's early signings of new-music composers like Steve Reich, John Adams, and Philip Glass, and the pioneering ensemble Kronos Quartet that speak loudly of the label's dedication to work of these singular artists and the field of contemporary classical music.

• Musical theater and film soundtracks are the subject of "Sound Stages," which offers a side-by-side audio comparison of the two Nonesuch recordings of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd—the 2006 Broadway revival and the 2007 film version starring Johnny Depp—and features a printer's proof of the latter package's booklet, marked with comments by the composer himself.

• From there, it's on to jazz and pop in "Hello, Cool World," which highlights the label's relationship with jazz masters like Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, and Joshua Redman, and the signings of more pop-oriented performers like Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Randy Newman, and The Magnetic Fields, also marked by the release of Björk's new Voltaic project.

Two of the newest additions to the Nonesuch artist roster, New York singer-songwriter Christina Courtin and the Providence, Rhode Island-based trio The Low Anthem, are featured in in-depth artist profiles of their own. Each article includes music, live performance videos, and interviews with the artists discussing the influences that inspired them to make the music they do.

And finally, the issue closes with "Playtime: A Music Box," through which you can choose from more than 50 full songs that FLYP has selected to be among "the most interesting pieces out of Nonesuch's catalog for a full tour through the label's sound."

It's a lot to take in and best understood by experiencing it first-hand. To do so yourself, visit flypmedia.com and enjoy.