Beethoven vs The Crazy Frog

Interesting numbers coming out of the BBC's Beethoven download trial, with around 600,000 downloads of the symphonies that were made available as mp3 files. That shows an incredible pent-up demand for quality free classical music downloads from the BBC, especially when you consider that according to the RAJAR figures Radio 3's weekly reach is around 2 million adults.

We've shown our support for the Download and Podcast trial by adding a link to it in the homepage's Radio box - hoping to bring a more mainstream audience to what is still to some extent a niche activity.

Tess Alps made a different point about the number of downloads in today's Media Guardian supplement, comparing it to those of the Crazy Frog ringtone:

The BBC's free Beethoven symphonies download has now apparently leapfrogged Jamster's sales.

By any method of counting if the Beethoven mp3 downloads had been eligible for any of the UK's musical charts they would have romped into the top slots this week.