Submitted by flatmap on Wed, 04/22/2009 - 13:18
In their most recent newsletter, Classics Online advertises that they plan to offer FLAC. They sell some major classical labels including Chandos, Naxos, Hungaroton and have a bunch of the specialty labels such as Atoll, Analekta, BIS, Haenssler Classic , Kuckuck Schallplatten, Opera Rara and etc.
There's no word yet on date, pricing, or which labels will be available in lossless. Their catalog is currently entirely offered as MP3 format (no DRM) mostly at $9.99 per album, but with Naxos albums from $3.99 to $6.99. At least with the current MP3 offerings you can also purchase on a per track basis. I'm not sure if this will extend to FLAC or not. Note: It's an international site and you will find many tasty items that are not allowed to be sold to your country. Alas.
Anyway I'm inclined to be optimistic. Every business that takes the leap to FLAC, is one more that may become interested in High Res later on; that's my feeling.
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16/44.1 and 24/96 music files via iTunes running on a G4 Mac -> Wavelength Audio Proton USB DAC -> AKG K-702 headphones.