Classical music doesn't really like life in the fast lane. It takes its time and heaves a great sigh and dips only the tips of its toes into the water. It likes to get wet slowly.

But even classical music has had to admit that it needs to think about how people are listening to music. Having enjoyed something of a boom during the late 80s and 90s when everyone rebought their old LPs in CD form, it has of late been trying to get a handle on a plummet in sales (with a subsequent plummet in new CD releases). And so, quite belatedly, a few Internet based music subscription services and iTunes style music shops have spring offering MP3 versions of classical recordings. Unfortunately, the quality and quantity of the tracks available leaves a great deal to be desired.

And though its still just a phenomenon in process as it were, the extent to which it has been taken note of is apparent in the inclusion of articles both this month and last in BBC Music Magazine, concerning the new digital revolution (sadly BBC Music Magazine isn’t available online outside of a few reviews).

Its a phenomenon worth examining partly because for the most part online classical music is not so very easy to find and some of the best websites, like unheardbeethoven.com, are as the name suggests, somewhat limited in scope. After all, as befitting such a niche, aging and generally cranky market, Launch and iTunes don’t really offer classical music in the normal way (and Pandora.com, which is in other ways brilliant, doesn’t include it at all). And, to make matters worse, some of the websites that offer the most comprehensive listings (for example HMV, a British music retailer's website), aren't really available to US subscribers. Of those that remain, the largest appear to be www.emusic.com and www.eclassical.com,

Seen critically, what’s really interesting about them, although in retrospect it is something of a rather obvious assertion, is the way in which these sites choose the pieces that they will play. If for example, you use Yahoo’s Launch, you will mostly end up with lackluster, pedestrian offerings alongside some truly blockbuster releases. It’s Launch that will play recordings by Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell and all those bold faced names. But they will not be playing anything that didn’t sell loads of copies. The pure classical sites, in contrast, will offer a far greater range of pieces, but the performers tend to ones that I, using myself as an example of someone who is not by any means an expert but does have some level of knowledge, have never heard of. You can't hear George Cziffra, or George Solti for that matter, and you might end up feeling a bit had. The most probable truth about this is that the classical music divisions of the big record companies (like EMI and Sony Classical) don't see any point in sharing their great hordes of music on a subscription basis (the exception here is Naxos which has released its catalogue to emusic.com)

It’s a gamble that, like so many things in classical music is being driven by a very narrow, ridiculously simplistic vision of the way in which audiences seem to be set up. After all, seen from a demographic point of view the classical audience would be relatively well off and willing to pay for a specific recording of a specific piece, indeed in most really good music shops there are up to date and very well thumbed editions of classical recordings guides with helpful descriptions of the music, and in London’s flagship Virgin Megatore on Regent Street, you can request any CD to be opened and played in its entirety on of a dozen listening stations which also feature new and interesting recordings.

In classical music therefore, it is not always WHAT is being played, but rather WHO is playing it.

And this ultimately is the challenge that internet classical music providers will have to overcome. Its not enough to offer Beethoven’s symphonies in their entirety, its necessary for someone brilliant (I have currently found myself in love with the aforementioned George Solti’s recordings, especially of Beethoven’s 7th symphony) to be playing them, or preferably lots of different amazing people so you can compare. And you need to offer recordings of new and interesting pieces by previously unknown composers (played preferably by someone highly recognizeable) so that they would be taken out of concert halls and scattered premieres and into living rooms where they could be replayed and gotten used to, aurally speaking.

But despite these hurdles, there would seem to be quite a future in this, especially as regards new pieces. Though it may take some time, I expect that classical music may one day slouch its way into the present and drag itself along to something that resembles everyone else's future.