A Fifth of Beethoven
 
Writing in this week's (Guardian) Friday Review, Stephen Moss considers the issues for classical music on download. While classical tunes have a 6-8% share on iTunes - considerably more than their 2.5% of the overall bricks'n'mortar market - there are some information architecture issues.
 
What is a 'song' in classical terms? (How many songs to the symphony?) Many classical 'tunes' can only be bought as albums on iTunes in the UK, as all their  'songs' are longer than 7 minutes.  
 
How is it that Beethoven's piano sonatas are organised by movement, not by number? Music download stores are based on a rock and pop model of information, which doesn't fit certain other genres.

Postscript 17 August: If you're interested in this subject, see also Dan Hill's 10 August post, where he discusses Wayne Bremser's work on the subject of metadata for jazz.