July 29, 2002 - http://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?1401

   Like most of the record business, classical music is having a tough
   time finding a new audience in the digital download world.  And in
   line with the recent moves by record labels to market popular music
   online, classical music fans in the UK will soon have another bona
   fide incentive for locating and legally purchasing works via the
   Internet.

   Last week, UK Internet service providers Freeserve and Classical.com
   announced that they have signed a commercial agreement to provide a
   classical music subscription service on Freeserve's website.  The
   new collaboration has been named Freeserve Classical, and has been
   set up to offer users on-demand access to Classical.com's catalog of
   10,000 classical recordings, as well as an extensive resource of
   classical music reference material and recommendations.

   Freeserve says that its visitors will be able to select from a range
   of subscription packages priced between $3.99 and $10.99 ($6.25-$17.20)
   per month.  The company explains that the "Essentials" package will
   provide unlimited online listening as well as 10 monthly downloads,
   or the equivalent of a CD's worth of tracks, that can be kept
   indefinitely and played on the user's PC, burned to CD, or transferred
   to a portable player.

   ....

"Laurence Sherwood" <[log in to unmask]>