A CD series bringing together short, catchy parts of 100 pieces of classical music has recently become a surprise blockbuster at CD shops across the country.

About 700,000 copies of a set of six CDs from Toshiba EMI have been sold since its release last spring, with the series at one point hitting fourth place in the Oricon national CD sales rankings.

The success of the Best Classic 100 has surprised the music industry because usually a classical music CD is considered a big hit if it sells just 10,000 copies.

Other record companies have rushed to release similar collection CDs, which contain only several minutes of each of the most famous classical compositions.