Universal Music Group has announced that it is to reissue 10,000 out of print European albums as digital downloads. Many of these albums were only ever released on vinyl and have never before been available in a digital format.

Artists with work included in this project, which will take several years to complete, include Marianne Faithfull, Fairport Convention, Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll, Brigitte Bardot, Chris DeBurgh, Big Country and Nirvana.

Confirming the project, which follows the completion of the digitisation of all of the major’s active catalogue, Barney Wragg of Universal’s eLabs division told CMU: “Over the next three to four years, we aim to reissue perhaps as many as 10,000 albums for downloading, which amounts to more than 100,000 tracks. This program will offer material that, in some cases, goes back to the early days of recorded music.”

He continued: “This ‘digital archaeology’ programme represents a serious commitment to go further into the past, and to begin to take advantage of the benefits for artists and for music fans of digital download technology. Hopefully, the first round of recordings selected for this initiative will start to satisfy consumer demand, as more and more people buy their music online.”