Gramophone's archive going online

The first edition of the magazine - then called The Gramophone - was in 1923

The classical music magazine Gramophone is putting its entire archive online, offering access to "every single word" it has published in the past 85 years.

Several hundred thousand reviews will listed on its website, along with all of its interviews and articles.

Editor James Inverne said he hoped the reviews would make it easier to spot the best recordings when there were hundreds of versions of works.

It was often "difficult for newcomers to find their way around", he added.

He said the classical music industry was "fully behind" the magazine's plan, which would see the archive going online by August.

A second phase of the magazine's digital extension would see downloads and a CD mail-order service introduced next year, he added.

Leading cellist Julian Lloyd Webber described the Gramophone website as having the potential to be "the one-stop site" which classical music fans and performers had been "waiting for".