A shelf in the record shop
Classical
The shelf that depends most on your connection: classical loses more in compression than other music, because quiet passages and overtones go first. Lossless classical streams are rare — what a station delivers is on its card, and where it matters, so is the connection it needs.
13 stations
Every station here plays in 432 Hz instead of the usual 440 if you want it to — the page shifts the pitch down by 31.77 cents. We promise you no effect. We give you a dial.
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Radio France · Paris, FR · aac · 194 kbit/s
The classical channel of French public broadcasting, with its own orchestras and live broadcasts from the Auditorium. Broadcasts in a hi-fi version at 48 kHz — audibly more space than the usual 44.1.
no ads human host
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SRG SSR · Bern, CH · aac · 192 kbit/s
Ad-free, license-fee funded, classical around the clock with no hosting between pieces. At 192 kbit/s AAC, one of the cleanest freely available classical streams around. No talk segment interrupts, no jingle — the music plays until it's over.
no ads instrumental
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Český rozhlas · Prag, CZ · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
The classical channel of Czech public broadcasting, with a conspicuous amount of Czech repertoire — Janáček, Martinů, Suk. Composers who rarely get past Dvořák in German-language programming.
no ads
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Bayerischer Rundfunk · München, DE · mp3 · 256 kbit/s
With its own symphony orchestra and choir, whose recordings run regularly in the program. Talk segments between pieces explain what's coming next — the kind of radio where you learn something on the side.
no ads human host
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Norddeutscher Rundfunk · Hamburg, DE · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
Classical with literature, radio drama, and conversation mixed in. If you want music without a single word, Radio Swiss Classic is the better fit — here, talking is part of the program. A culture station in the old sense, treating music and language as belonging together.
no ads human host
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ORF · Wien, AT · mp3 · 192 kbit/s
The culture station of Austrian public broadcasting, since 1967. Classical, new music, science, and features in one program — an institution in Vienna, barely known outside it. A station you switch on and end up having heard something other than what you planned.
no ads human host
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University of Southern California · Los Angeles, US · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
The largest listener-funded classical station in the US, backed by a university in Los Angeles. American classical radio sounds more approachable than European — less reverence, more storytelling.
community no ads
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New York Public Radio · New York, US · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
New York's classical station since 1936, once owned by the New York Times, now listener-funded. Regularly broadcasts from Carnegie Hall and the city's orchestras. The best address in the catalog for American orchestras and American composers.
community no ads
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Venice Classic Radio · Venedig, IT · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
A small Venetian station focused on baroque and Italian repertoire — Vivaldi, Albinoni, Marcello, in their own city. Ad-free and unhosted. If you want to hear baroque as repertoire rather than background, this is where the depth is.
no ads instrumental
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laut.fm · Konstanz, DE · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
Exclusively early music: medieval, Renaissance, early baroque, on period instruments. The counterpart to Ancient FM over in Curiosities — same field, different hand. Music from centuries when concert pitch wasn't yet fixed at 440 Hz.
instrumental no ads
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WALM Radio · New York, US · opus · 192 kbit/s
Classical off original shellac records, broadcast in Opus at 192 kbit/s. The same people who run Adroit Jazz over on the jazz shelf — you hear the record, not the remastered reissue.
no ads lossless
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Fine Music Radio · Kapstadt, ZA · aac · 128 kbit/s
Classical and jazz from Cape Town, made by volunteers. The only station on this shelf that plays both on equal footing — and the only one from the African continent.
community no ads human host
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Educational Information Corporation · Wake Forest, US · mp3 · 128 kbit/s
Put on the air in 1978 by five students from North Carolina, with home-built gear and army-surplus equipment. Today it plays classical music around the clock, carried by its listeners — and was one of the very first stations to stream on the internet.
no ads human host