Renowned music label RCA has begun digitizing its catalogue of classic disco tracks for release through online music services, such as iTunes.
The first fruits of the new digitizing drive are already available through iTunes, including Odyssey's 1977 chart hit, "Native New Yorker".
The company claims each track costs $800 to digitize each track, and doesn't expect to make a huge initial return on its digital strategy, but the move is likely to be welcomed by fans of the disco genre, who must currently buy tracks on the collectors market.
RCA Music Group vice president of A&R Hosh Gureli told Billboard: ""It's a labour of love. The return is not great, but it could be. And if it does start to show a profit, that's going to make a big statement for dance music, and it will, I think, get other labels interested" in doing the same thing."
RCA will release dance classics from RCA, Arista, and J Records. Releases will be made exclusively available through iTunes for thirty days, after which tracks will be made available through other digital music services.
