A new music download service specialising in classical music has launched.

Passionato is said to provide the biggest collection of classical downloads in the UK, giving users access to over 18,000 recordings from major classical labels and independent labels.

James Glicker, Passionato's founder, said many fans of classical music have previously shunned downloaded music files because of their sound quality.

"Online music stores have typically offered MP3s at 128Kbits/sec, which is fine for pop music but it's not exactly high-fidelity," he said.

The new store offers each track as a higher quality 320Kbits/sec MP3 file or a lossless FLAC file that contains all the audio information found in a CD recording.

All tracks are Digital Rights Management (DRM) free, so they can be transferred to any computer or portable music player and can be burnt to a CD.

As part of the launch, anyone registering on the site can claim 10 free pre-selected tracks including a 30-minute work.