Classical Music and YouTube

One of the greatest proponents of classical music is the Internet. With its prominent contribution of infusing life into an almost dying music genre, the Internet has seen extreme diversification in recent years especially in the fields of embedding audio and video in web pages. The Internet has brought us all together on a common platform of classical music. Classical music resources are now available for everyone, from ‘elite’ to ‘commoners’.

One remarkable feature of Internet based classical music is the availability of downloadable or streaming music pieces. Although many websites provide these contents free, some might render you the service for a very low price. Download options are also available from different forums, websites, or blogs where generally the contents are provided for free by the passionate music lovers.

Another important breakthrough in the field of classical music is the video download or embedding in the websites or blogs. Classical music is not only for listening to, rather it is a multi-sensory experience. Attending a classical music concert can never be replaced with some other form of enjoying the music. Classical music concerts played on TV or radio are a time-bound event. Once you miss the broadcast, you miss it almost forever. The Internet on the contrary, allows you to view classical music concert videos at a time and place of your convenience.

There are dedicated websites that host classical music videos. Some of these may charge a small amount of money to allow access to the videos. But there are numerous websites that showcase concert videos for free. It is true that the quality of the video may at times be unsatisfactory, but given the opportunities the websites provide, the quality can be a compromise.

YouTube is probably a name that needs no explanation today. The growing popularity of this free video streaming website has changed the dimension of music particularly by offering free access to classical music videos. YouTube has diversified in various fields where music remains one of the principal areas. YouTube virtually covers everything of classical music starting from concert performances to the teaching of conductor movements.

YouTube has an impressive collection of classical music videos. A search with the keyword ‘classical music’ yields a result of over 240,000 videos, most truly relate to the music genre. If it is seemingly impossible to find and watch all of the YouTube classical music pieces or other videos, you can narrow down your search by mentioning artists or track names. For beginners, YouTube is a very good option for getting a look at the performances of the greatest artists and the compositions.

Videos at YouTube are of the streaming nature. They load and play in real time Internet session. If you however, you like to download the clips and save them for later viewing, you need to go through two different steps. First, you should use a browser plug-in or separate third party software to download YouTube’s .flv format. After the download, convert it to your desired format like mp4, mpeg-2, avi etc.