Born of wealthy parents, Albinoni was a dilettante musician, never seeking a church or court post, although he had contact with noble patrons.

He concentrated on instrumental and secular vocal music and had early successes with his opera Zenobia and 12 trio sonatas op.1 (both composed in 1694).

His reputation grew, with operas staged in other cities, beginning with Rodrigo in Algeri (1702, Naples); later operas, such as I veri amici (1722, Munich), were staged abroad. In all he wrote over 50 operas, several other stage works and over 40 solo cantatas; few works date from after 1730.

Albinoni's instrumental works, mostly for strings, were especially popular; ten sets were published in his lifetime. Bach based four keyboard fugues on subjects from the op.1 sonatas.

While Albinoni's concertos were less adventurous and soloistic than Vivaldi's, they were probably the earliest consistently in three movements and his oboe concertos op.7 (1715) were the first by an Italian to be published. The sonatas (for one to six instruments with continuo) are mostly in four movements.

His music is individual, with a strong melodic character and, especially in the early works, exceptionally well balanced.