The Naxos consortium's DRM-free download site, Classicsonline, has a 24-hour special offer - buy one album, get one free. There's a list of about 50 free albums to choose from, so not everything's part of the offer, unfortunately, but it has some good stuff: Dvorak's Cello Concerto with Peter Bruns and the Staatskapelle Dresden (Hanssler); Grieg's complete music for string orchestra (BIS); and the Pacifica performing Dvorak's G major quartet (Cedille) - plus a LOT of Baroque, Christmasy, and classical-era music (which I know too little of/about to list). Worth checking out :)
(By the way, the album you *buy* can be anything that they have; it's the free one that's restricted to the list. Also notice the sale is tomorrow only, not today. More details here (http://www.classicsonline.com/marketing/christmaspromo.aspx).)
Thanks, Brian--I was interested enough to look, but doubt I would pay more than $1 to download a 192kbps mp3 'album'--and certainly not $6.99, which is about what I would pay for a 'CD quality' Naxos CD. But I was raised by children of the depression.
Brian, thanks for posting this. :)
BTW, it's not just Naxos CDs, there are other labels as well.
More recommendable freebies: Nielsen Symphonies 2 and 3 from Michael Schonwandt's excellent cycle, Jansons' Tchaikovsky Five, and Gunter Wand and the Munich Philharmonic in the Bruckner Fourth.
Avoid the Profil disc of serenades by Suk and Dvorak; it's just plain bad. The Naxos lute album is pretty tempting, though.
Hello, longears ~ I understand your point, though I've never been able to tell the difference between CD quality and mp3 quality. :( (Or perhaps that's a good thing.) The sample clips are of significantly lower quality than the actual downloads, by the way (I've used Classicsonline several times before).