BBC upsets record industry with free Beethoven MP3s

Last month the BBC got some attention for releasing, for free, downloads (just for a period of time) of all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies. It was a nice gesture, and probably introduced plenty of people to elements of classical music that they had not experienced before. All of that, you would think, should be applauded by the industry — as it should only help to drive more interest in the often ignored area of the music world. Not so. GeekNewsCentral points out that classical record label execs are positively livid about such impudence. The head of one label explains: "There is the obvious issue that it is devaluing the perceived value of music. You are also leading the public to think that it is fine to download and own these files for nothing."