Classical label, Deutsche Grammophon, is bringing it’s catalog to the web for global consumption. With over 2,400 titles to chose from, many “gems and perls”, as Helene Grimaud (sorry, I don’t have the accents for her first name) puts it in her YouTube commercial. We have Lang Lang (pronounce Long Long) her to tell you how excited he is about the new service.

DG Web Shop, as it’s titled, is under the Universal Music Group umbrella and such, this is yet another fist-a-cuffs gesture toward Apple’s iTunes. While it is a global market, pricing is in Euros and thus after the conversation rate – surprise – is more expensive than iTunes. All files are encoded in 320 kpbs MP3 and thus there is no DRM attached to these fine pieces of art. DG Web Shop’s press release notes this as, “part of Universal Music Group’s ongoing market trials of DRM-free downloads, announced earlier this year.” No notation how it balked at Apple when it asked for the same after the EMI announcement. Mmm.

President of Deutsche Grammophon Michael Lang states in the same release, “By launching this easy-to-use, intuitive DG Web Shop, we are not only expecting a significant growth in turnover but are also aiming to solidify and expand the digital future. In concrete terms, this means establishing innovative sales channels and concepts: by attracting the classical novice and, of course, those already steeped in the genre – and everyone in-between – as they transfer from being only CD buyers to exploring the advantages of downloading, in CD-comparable audio. This web shop’s easy-to-use search function helps all music enthusiasts find and select music by categories such as genre, composer, artist, as well as filter by awards, reviews and series.”

That’s where all you classical lovers come in and vote with your dollar, er, Euro. Now with Amazon’s music download service and this service, the heat is on at Apple which is a good thing for even iTunes lovers. Competition is always good. Now let’s just see how well this works out for Universal. Time will tell.