The Best Christmas Gifts for Music Lovers
Everyone likes music. Some people love it: they spend their waking hours listening to it, arguing about it, and, if you're lucky, playing it. Buying for those people is hard, because their taste is specific and their opinions are firm. As music lovers ourselves, we've been on both ends of that problem.
So here is our 2026 list of the best Christmas gifts for music lovers. Seven ideas, each with a note on who it suits, so you can match the present to the person rather than the other way round.
1. A gift membership to MusicGurus
The one we'd buy first, and not only because it's ours. A gift membership is a month, three months or a year of the whole library: 230+ video courses and 30 interactive songbooks from more than a hundred professional musicians. You don't need to know their grade or their genre; a lapsed pianist, a bedroom producer and a teenager on a Rockschool syllabus each find their own corner of it.
The logistics suit Christmas: you pay once, pick 25 December, and the email lands that morning with your note on top. Their time starts when they redeem it, not when you buy it, and nothing renews. If you want a place to point them, try Christmas Classics on Piano for the day itself, singing with Alfie Boe for the one who sings in the car, or a first drum lesson for the person who's been tapping the table for years. Build their gift takes about two minutes.
Best for: anyone who plays, used to play, or keeps saying they'll start.
2. Vinyl records
Not the most original music present, but one of the most reliable. A record is more tangible than a streaming playlist and the ritual of playing it is half the point. The trick is choosing well: go for something they love but don't own on vinyl, rather than something you think they should love. Discogs is the place to look. It's the biggest marketplace for new and second-hand records, you can search by pressing and condition, and if your music lover already has a Discogs collection you can check what they own before you buy. A first pressing of an album they only have on CD beats any box set.
They'll need a turntable. If they haven't got one and you're feeling generous, that's a great gift too; if they have, a record-cleaning kit or a decent set of inner sleeves is the small extra that says you know what you're doing.
Best for: the collector, and the person who still reads liner notes.
3. Gig tickets
Still the best experience gift there is, and the one that gives you a memory together rather than an object. The catch is that you need three things: a date they can make, an artist they'd actually queue for, and a venue where they'll be happy (standing or seated matters more than people admit). If you can answer all three, book it. If the artist isn't touring yet, a voucher for the venue they go to most is the honest alternative.
Best for: the person whose "best night ever" stories all start in a venue.
4. A songbook they'll actually play
Music books are a Christmas staple, and the version that gets used is the one they can play from. Our interactive sheet music library includes titles from Schott, Hal Leonard and Rockschool; the notation follows the recording, you can slow a passage down without changing the pitch, and loop the bar that keeps going wrong. Songbooks are included in a gift membership, or can be bought on their own if you know exactly which one they've been eyeing.
If they'd rather read than play, an artist memoir or a well-made record-cover anthology is a safe bet. Just check they don't already own it. They probably do.
Best for: the player who has run out of things to learn by ear.
5. Music software for producers
For the budding or working producer, a DAW is the most important tool they own, and it isn't cheap. Ableton sells Live as a gift and Pro Tools has subscription plans you can put money towards, so you can pay for the upgrade they've been putting off. If they haven't picked a DAW yet, our guide to the best DAW software for beginners will help them choose, and the music production courses on MusicGurus are taught by people who make records for a living.
Best for: the one with the laptop, the MIDI keyboard and the very specific opinions about compressors.
6. Something for the practice room
Small, cheap, and used every day: that's the sweet spot for a stocking present. A clip-on tuner, a proper music stand instead of the wobbly one, a metronome they'll actually hear over the drums, a set of strings or reeds in the gauge they use, or a comfortable pair of closed-back headphones for late-night practice. None of these is exciting to unwrap. All of them get used more than the exciting things.
Best for: the person who practises, and everyone who lives with them.
7. A harmonica
The instrument that fits in a stocking and is genuinely playable in a week. A diatonic harp in C costs less than a round of drinks, and Simple Blues Harmonica in 8 Lessons turns it into a proper course rather than a novelty. If the recipient is already a guitarist or pianist, this is the cheapest way to give them a second instrument.
Best for: the musician who says they don't have room for another instrument.
The short version
If you know exactly which record, book or gig they want, buy that and enjoy being right. If you don't, give them the thing they'll use most: time with the musicians they look up to. A MusicGurus gift membership is one payment, arrives on the morning you choose, and starts when they're ready.
And if the music lover you're buying for is you, and you'd like a few Christmas classics under your fingers by the 25th, start here: Christmas Classics on Piano. Carols, arranged to sound like the record, taught one hand at a time.