Classical Music On The Up

I was reading Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise and Chris Anderson: The Long Tail today and both were discussing the recently released statistics for the music industry, 2006.
Apparently digital track sales are up 65%, with the fastest growing category being classical music. Now I know Robin has been downloading an awful lot of late, but it can't all be down to him.
As Chris Anderson says, classical music has been 'badly served in music stores', and this is certainly the case where we live. It is virtually impossible to get anything other than 'popular' classics here, and I'm sure it is the same for most people.
There is a lot to be said for downloading though.
You get a chance to listen before buying, as it used to be in record shops, and for those less confident in the whole area of classical music, they can browse without any embarrassment or intimidation.
Record labels haven't helped by making it increasingly difficult for artists to get contracts, and therefore distribution of CDs is affected.
My concern with downloading though, is the musicians themselves. Yes, they are receiving their fees from reputable downloading stores, but I'm sure there are many out there giving away tracks free, without the artists knowledge or consent.
This is an area that has to be reviewed, as after all, the musicians put in a lot of work for these projects and it is their income.
I'll rant more on that another time...