This global penetration includes markets where the major e-business retailers, such as iTunes, are not yet available: Southeast Asia including China, India, Latin America, South Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe including Russia. Michael Lang, President of Deutsche Grammophon, stated: ‘Our company was founded over 110 years ago, and since then, it has stood for innovation and quality.

During the development of our new web shop, we remained true to these principles as we continue to expand the digital music marketplace with our range of download services.’ Almost 2,400 DG albums will be available for download in maximum MP3 quality at a transfer bit-rate of 320 kilobits per second (kbps) ‘ an audio-level that experts agree is indistinguishable from CD quality audio; and which exceeds the usual industry download-standard of 128-192 kbps (as well as EMI’s 256 kbps on iTunes).

Through the launch of this new portal, drawing on the existing strength of its 250,000 unique web site visitors per month, the company once again shows that tradition and technical progress can be combined, and that new distribution channels can be created to appeal to a wider range of music consumers.

Among the highlights of the DG Web Shop are almost 600 album titles which are no longer available as CDs ‘these have been specially converted into MP3 files for the DG Web Shop, making them available as downloads’ with more out-of-print titles to follow. The goal is to digitize all the great Deutsche Grammophon recordings to be accessible for download ‘ a treasure of music history, always available.