It's not impossible to browse and discover good classical music online—but it's very, very difficult. The iTunes selection is limited, and the sound quality of downloaded music isn't up to Tchaikovsky. Sony aims to fix that with Ariama, a music store devoted the classics.
Ariama's greatest appeal might lie less in its selection—it's not promising that you can only buy the CD version of Universal Music albums—and more in the sound quality; Sony will offer 320 kilobits per second standard (iTunes tracks, by contrast, are 256 kilobits per second) but also a lossless FLAC version for about a $2/album premium.
It might not be enough to get you interested in classical music if you weren't already, but for those of you hankering for the Boston Pops in high fidelity, this is a welcome accelerando. [Media Memo]