Philadelphia Orchestra is first

The Philadelphia Orchestra jumped into the world of music downloads on Thursday, becoming the first major U.S. orchestra to open its own online music store.

Making concert performances available through new media has become a growing trend in the classical music world.

But while the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and many European orchestras already make their music ready for downloading for the iPod generation, the Philadelphia Orchestra is believed to be the first to sell the music without an outside distributor.