Universal owned classical music label Deutsche Grammophon has announced it will make lots of its catalogue available online as DRM-free MP3s as part of a relaunch of its website. 2500 albums will be available, including 600 titles not currently available on CD. It's part of a long term ambition by the major division to get its entire back catalogue, which goes all the way back to the company's launch in 1898 in Hanover, available digitally.
Talking up the new download offer, and the content driven website where the downloads will be sold from, Deutsche Grammophon boss Michael Lang told Billboard: "At this point, we're trying to do it at 1000 titles at a time, using some common sense of what the public likes. That goal and that timeline will be dependent on how we see the consumer embracing true back catalogue. The beauty of a catalogue rich company such as DG, the idea of being able to digitize and make available continually all of those titles is a no-brainer".