Top 10 Sources for Free Classical Music Downloads

There are times when people feel overly stressed, tired or they simply like to hear a majestic classical music piece, so they start searching for sources for free classical music downloads.

Luckily, many websites offer this possibility. They have thousands of songs that can be downloaded in an MP3 format and listened to whenever you want. Starting from Bach and Mozart to the more modern composers, you’ll find everything you’re looking for.

So, here are some of the best sources.

Musopen

Image © Musopen

This is a website that has a huge number of resources, especially classical music that’s royalty-free. Nearly all composers that you can think of are featured.

Actually, exploring it is very simple thanks to the options it incorporates. Users can search for their favorite artists and music pieces in alphabetical order, and by stating the instrument or period. To accompany these, the site has a ‘Featured Composers’ section. Also, those who prefer to be surprised have the possibility to listen to the radio, which plays random classical music.

While everyone can stream the music, only those with a free account can download it, but there’s a limit of five songs per day.

Classic Cat

Image © classiccat.net

This is definitely one of the sources with the biggest collections of classical music that can be downloaded for free. It has more than six thousand available pieces. And for the new users, it offers a page with a Top-100 list to help them decide what to listen to.

Searching for pieces is very easy, as well. All you should do is pick a composer, some of their work, and click the provided button. You’ll then be redirected to another page that contains all the requested pieces in an MP3 format ready to be downloaded.

Last.fm

Image © Last.fm

All free downloads are clearly displayed on this site. However, they can’t be filtered or sorted, so you should go over all the pages and search for the wanted piece or composer.

The positive thing about it, though, is that once you spot what you’re looking for, you can simply press the download button next to the track. It’ll begin downloading automatically.

Free Music Archive

Image © Freemusicarchive.org

The classical pieces on this site are separated in 20^th century classical, chamber, choral, composed or contemporary classical music, opera, piano, and symphony. There’s even a table with details connected to the artist, track, the album it is on as well as the genre.

Actually, there are more than three thousand tunes to pick from, so the chances are greater that you’ll find what you like to listen to. You can hear the chosen tracks at once with the help of the play button on the left and download them by pressing the button to the right.

Read More: Free Online Music

Another thing that makes it popular among classical music lovers is the fact that you don’t need an account in order to download the songs. You can even add some of your favorite tunes in a playlist.

1Classical

Image © 1Classical.com

The simple design of this site helps everyone find their way around it very easily. It has a bunch of MP3s that are divided into a few sections like the top 5 played pieces, the suggestions of the week as well as option to explore the tracks by their composers and instruments.

Moreover, there’re free classical radios where you can stream to music all the time.

Wikipedia

Image © Wikipedia.org

Wikipedia isn’t a very usual choice for people who want to download classical music because seldom who thinks that it features such options.

However, through the page Wikipedia: Sound/list, you can stream and download numerous tracks in an OGG format. The search bar offers you a chance to explore the pages and subpages, but you can use it only if you know at least something about the track you’re looking for such as the composer’s name or a word from the title of the song.

Aside from that, users are allowed to sort the music in a list based on the year, composer or track name and even comments about the piece and decide what to download.

Classical.com

Image © Classical.com

With more than 400.000 classical tunes and 3.000 composers, this site has something for all classical music fans. Every week you can find a whole classical album to download without paying for it. In order to download the free album, you should make an account, provide your email address and password in the form and choose whether you want to subscribe to the newsletter or not.

The only downside, though, is that the site charges small fees for downloading the other tracks that aren’t on the weekly free album.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Image © Gardnermuseum.org

This is a place that offers a vast collection of classical pieces. They are available to all listeners for free, giving them a rich program wherever they are. The songs can be heard through the unique classical podcast or downloaded as individual recordings.

Before downloading, you should first explore the numerous pages full of tunes and pick the one you like. You also have the chance to search through them with the keywords of the song that you know. Then you can download them by right-clicking on the download button next to the track.

Early Classical Music

Image © Google.com

Jon Sayles’ Early Classical Music has instrumental tracks from the 14^th to the 19^th century. All recordings are available for free and users can listen to them, download them, burn to CDs or otherwise use them for their own purposes.

If you want to download them, all you should do is right-click on a specific tune and save the link as MP3.

James Kibbie – Bach Organ Works

Image © Blockmrecords.org

Dr. James Kibbie presents his collection of Bach organ works on this page. He has recorded them on official baroque organs, making them available to the public for free.

Everyone can download them in an MP3 format and enjoy their masterfulness. Just go to the Familiar Masterworks, the Catalog, or search for specific tunes.

There’s even an opportunity to download more pieces in a group. Keep reading on Flix Expo.