Universal Music Group is trolling online for fans of such ``deleted'' European recordings as ``Man on the Line'' by Chris de Burgh from 1984 and ``A Man Without Love'' by Engelbert Humperdinck from 1968.

Vivendi Universal SA's Universal, the world's largest music company, is reviving more than 100,000 European tracks no longer released in physical form for digital downloading on services such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes service, London-based Universal Music Group International said today.

``It's a bit of a jump into the unknown,'' said Adam White, a spokesman for Universal Music International in London. ``We don't really know what these will sell, but digital technology now lets us make more repertoire available.''

Universal's decision to exhume discontinued European albums for digital release reflects the changing economics of the music industry in the downloading era. Music companies routinely delete poor-selling albums and it would be unfeasible to revive them in physical form due to manufacturing costs and limited retail shelf space, so digital delivery offers a low-cost method to gauge renewed interest in niche recordings.

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