Where to Buy and Listen
There are many online sites where you can preview and purchase classical music, both as CDs and downloadable files. Some of the sites will allow you to stream full or partial tracks of a work, which is preferable to the 30 second samples on Amazon or iTunes. Below is a list of my favorite sites and the features they offer.
Amazon.com offers CDs, MP3 and DVD of about everything on this site, and they feature the option to purchase out of print CDs used. A great resource for music, and the downloadable MP3 selection is large. This is the best site to read reviews from listeners to help you decide if a recording is for you. Amazon has a AmazonMP3 application that will easily sync any MP3 purchases to your iTunes library.
The label Deutsche Grammophon [DG] website has the DG Web Shop with online music. The site has an excellent selection of their old out of print catalog as downloads only.
iTunes Music Store
The application for your iPod with a built-in store, with a large variety of classical selections in AAC format, now DRM free [Digital Rights Management]. There are some albums that are not available anywhere else, although browsing the site can be a bit difficult unless you know exactly where what you are looking for.
The application for your iPod with a built-in store, with a large variety of classical selections in AAC format, now DRM free [Digital Rights Management]. There are some albums that are not available anywhere else, although browsing the site can be a bit difficult unless you know exactly where what you are looking for.
eMusic: An MP3 subscription service with a large selection from such labels as Naxos, Chandos and Telarc. The site now features Sony/BMG and Universal recordings with a lot of the older catalog from these labels. You get a set amount of downloads per month, but the downloads do not roll over month-to-month so be aware of that. A good way to get a lot of music for a great price, although not as much of a bargain as it was in the past.
ArchivMusic.com is a store featuring classical and jazz music only. Their prices are reasonable, and the site is very well organized, with the entire catalog sorted by composer, conductor, etc, making it very easy to find a particular recording. They also offer ArchivCDs, their on-demand service that re-releases many older out of print recordings. The price is a bit higher, and the earlier releases did not have album notes, but they have seemed to have fixed that with later issues. These are CD-R discs, but should play in any CD player, and the only way to get some recordings in CD quality.
Napster.com was recently purchased by Best Buy, and have music streaming and MP3 downloads. For $5 a month, you get streaming [about 128K - FM radio stereo] plus you receive 5 free MP3 downloads and month, so the streaming in more or less free. The MP3 credits do expire month to month like eMusic. A good way to sample a large variety of music.
The Music Heritage Society is a CD Music Club that you join and get mailers every 6 weeks. They feature a lot of out of print and less familiar releases. The prices tend to be a bit high, but they have sales every month, and that is the time to get your selections.
The budget label Naxos site post the liner notes to most of their CDs online and have biographies of the composers, and you can stream 25% of most tracks in FM quality for free if you sign up for the site. They do sell their entire catalog on the site ClassicsOnline.com and you can get multi-track cds at a bargain price on occasion. One note: The site is a bit slow, so be patient, and I ran into a problem of forgetting to sign out of the site, and eventually had too many logins and could not access the site. A quick note to support and they did reset the logins for me, but remember to log out to avoid any issues.