I haven't posted
free classical music offers in quite some time. At this time, I want to give you a roundup of all of the
free,
high-quality (no indies,
et al.) classical music download offers, that I am aware of, that are available on a periodic basis.
I feel certain that I will overlook some additional, germane information; if so, I'll make one or more posts to address that issue. However, I
believe that everything below is
accurate.
Naxos
Requires (Free) Subscription or Membership: Yes.
Sign Up Webpage (if Not the Homepage, Above): - -
Frequency of Giveaways: At least twice in a month. There's one offered on a Tuesday at the beginning or end of the month, with no choices; there's one offered a couple of weeks later (again, on a Tuesday, I think), with three choices. Other
free downloads offered periodically.
Formats Available: Always MP3; often FLAC, also.
Notes: If you don't see a
free offer on the webpage where it's supposed to be, make sure that you have scrolled all the way down the page (sometimes email programs truncate (clip) the end of long messages).
Classical-music.com.
Requires (Free) Subscription or Membership: Yes.
Sign Up Webpage (if Not the Homepage, Above): --
Frequency of Giveaways: They speak of their
free downloads being "weekly;" but it appears to be the same one for a month, at least.
Formats Available: MP3 only.
Notes: "the official website of
BBC Music Magazine."
Open Music Library (OML)/Alexander Street.
Requires (Free) Subscription or Membership: Yes.
Sign Up Webpage (if Not the Homepage, Above):
http://alexanderstreet.com/page/clas...-download-week.
Frequency of Giveaways: they speak of their
free downloads being "weekly;" however, it seems to be only once every two weeks.
Formats Available: MP3 only.
Notes: OML's/Alexander Street's
giveaways seem to be targeted at institutions, like public and school libraries. However, I have never seen any statement that the
giveaways were only for them, or anything to that effect. Because of the
giveaways being targeted toward institutions, it might take some creativity (you don't have to lie) to answer some of the questions required to sign up.
YourClassical.
Requires (Free) Subscription or Membership: No.
Sign Up Webpage (if Not the Homepage, Above): --
Frequency of Giveaways: Daily, Monday - Friday, including holidays; but see the "Notes," below.
Formats Available: MP3 only.
Notes: All of the daily
giveaways are
single tracks. YourClassical seems to be sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio; there is (or used to be) a mirror webpage on their website; however, I don't have the URL for that webpage, at the moment. The link to only the current day's
freebie is available at
YourClassical; however, at
this webpage you can find links to not only the current day's giveaway, but also about 6 or 7 of the previous days'
giveaways.
If you come across any errors, or anything that you think should be added, above, please let us know on the open thread, or by sending me a PM. Thanks.