The Philadelphia Orchestra is offering free downloads of their performances and recordings at their new online music store. The store was set up in partnership with nugs.net. This is the first time a major American orchestra has offered consumers the opportunity to download the orchestra's recent and archival music directly through its own Web site.

For a limited time you can get Beethoven's Fifth for free. The other eight are also available, as performed by the Orchestra during the 2005-6 season. (Those you have to pay for.) Initial prices range from $.99 for works under 10 minutes to $4.99 for a major work. In the future, full concerts will be available for $9.99. Special projects will be priced separately.

The recordings will initially be released as high-quality 256 kbps MP3s - a better-sounding audio format than similarly-priced offerings available through Apple's iTunes Music Store ? and in a true CD-quality format known as FLAC. Future plans include downloads available in even higher-resolution 24-bit formats to further attract audiophiles who seek better than CD-quality audio recordings. At least 12 new classical music downloads will be added to the catalogue per season.

PS: When you're done with the Orchestra, check out nugs.net, where you can listen to or download all kinds of music (free and otherwise), including live performances by a wide range of artists - Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Phish, the Grateful Dead and its many variations, Leo Kottke, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, Robert Randolph Band, Derek Trucks Band, Gov't Mule, Galactic... you get the idea. And seriously - there's a lot of stuff there.

Tom Heany