You’re probably here because you’re looking for the best free music download apps for your iOS or Android device.
Many of us eagerly await our favorite artists’ new releases and listen to their favorite songs on repeat for months and even years.
Physical media has been the typical way (in its various incarnations) throughout the 20th century of music acquisition, but waiting in lines at stores, ordering it through the mail, and copying music from friends’ tapes and CDs are now a thing of the past.
As the world has moved into a digital realm, the on-demand services that provide music can offer music for people to consume as soon as it’s available on the market.
With streaming services for audio and video popping up everywhere, there are many choices for acquiring music.
Whether you want to grow your music collection or perform karaoke, these are the best music download apps for Android and iOS.
YouTube Music
Download: YouTube Music for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
When artists release their new singles and the videos to go along with them, releasing them to YouTube is a no-brainer.
In addition to its vast worldwide audience, YouTube is a huge content platform that lets many artists share their music.
Downloading music from YouTube can be done in multiple ways. One such method is to have a YouTube Premium subscription.
This will allow you to download music onto your Android device via smart download functionality, or specific playlists can be downloaded entirely for offline listening. However, this is not precisely a free method.
Free downloads are also available on the standard YouTube platform. You can use the filter function under the “Features” section to find “Creative Commons” and look for the type of music you like. These are copyright-free audios that are free and legal to download.
Countless browser extensions permit downloading videos from YouTube, and some even make it possible to download them to audio formats like MP3.
There are entire sites dedicated to such download methods as well. Simply plugging in the link to the YouTube Video converts the file to an audio version and permits you to download it. These methods are free; however, their legality falls into a bit of a grey area.
Amazon Music
Download: Amazon Music for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Very often, artists release singles that they like to make available for free. Sometimes, as a promotion of a new album, they will make several of the album’s songs free to download for Amazon users.
This is a great way to acquire songs, though scouring Amazon Music for free downloads might take a bit of time, at least, to find the music you might be interested in, and most of these songs are offered for free for only a certain period of time.
Amazon Prime members, who mostly join the service for expedited shipping, can utilize Amazon Music to stream and download a great number of songs as part of Prime.
While Prime is an annually paid service, Amazon Music offerings are included in that realm. Amazon Music itself, as a separate service, offers the ability to store huge musical varieties for offline listening.
Jamendo Music
Download: Jamendo Music for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Termed as a combination of “jam” and “crescendo”, Jamendo Music is a Luxembourg-based service that is primarily aimed at introducing upcoming new artists and indie performers to the world.
The goal is to allow people to download music free of charge to promote new acts and to connect musicians to music fans.
While the downloads Jamendo offers are free, it also permits artists to sell the commercial rights to their music.
Slacker Radio
Download: Slacker Radio for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Slacker Radio is an online radio that allows listeners to stream their favorite tracks. You don’t need an account to stream the music.
When you create an account, you can generate personalized playlists, connect with other music fans, and get recommendations tailored to your musical tastes.
Slacker Radio also has hundreds of songs that are free to download. So you can keep listening to your favorite stations, ad-free, even without an internet connection.
These tunes are unlikely to be from big-name artists, however, but rather smaller indie acts trying to make a splash on the music scene.
SoundCloud
Download: SoundCloud for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
SoundCloud has lots of choices for listening to streaming music selections, but it also offers many downloadable tracks.
To listen to or download songs from Soundcloud, you will need to create an account and specify your preferred music genre.
You can check if the songs are available for download by clicking the three dots next to each track or searching for available downloadable music.
SoundClick
Download: SoundClick for Android | Website (Free, subscription available)
SoundClick offers users the ability to stream, license, and download music. The downloads are not plentiful, but there are quite a few available.
The site does not need an account, but creating one will allow you to create customized playlists, follow your artist of choice, and connect with other SoundClick users through a social platform.
Soundclick tracks charts of the most popular songs by category and tags them either as “free” or with a price. Tracks listed as free can be downloaded to your device for offline enjoyment.
Internet Archive (Audio Archive)
Visit: Internet Archive (Audio Archive)
The Internet Archive aims to collect all sources of knowledge, and music is included. Many songs are listed with a link to their YouTube or Spotify location, making it possible to access many great tunes.
The Internet Archive also contains many covers and alternate versions of popular songs that you can download and enjoy.
Bandcamp
Download: Bandcamp for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Available as an app and a website, Bandcamp allows you to search through many song titles, including all-time ‘best-sellers’ as well recent notable work from contemporary artists and new indie artists trying to make their name in the industry.
Once you have a title you are interested in hearing, you can either click play next to it to stream it or click on “buy now” to purchase it.
Obviously, if it’s free, the purchase price will be $0.00. But if you prefer to throw some money to the artist, you enter something different in the “name your price box.”
Audiomack
Download: Audiomack for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
With Audiomack, you do not need an account to search and download your favorite music.
You can download songs, full albums, or mixes for offline listening and even curate your own playlists without limitations.
You can also explore playlists made by others as well or follow your favorite artists for any new music they may release. There are ads that make the platform totally free, and no account is required.
Be aware that Audiomack compresses the large files for download, and it takes some time to unzip them before listening. You can use it in tandem with other compression tools to make the files smaller and easier to manage.
Musopen
Visit: Musopen website
Musopen’s mission is to ‘set music free,’ and while the site specializes in providing free sheet music and materials for music teachers and students, it also has many royalty-free songs available for listening to or downloading.
You can select the track under the Music tab, which provides a full selection of free, downloadable tracks.
To download it, click the download button on the song’s left. With 8,500+ downloadable tracks, you do not need to create an account to download them.
The only catch is that you cannot download tracks from the Musopen app. However, you can download them from the web to your computer, so you can always sync them with the app.
BeatStars
Download: BeatStars for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
BeatStars is a platform that allows musicians to buy and sell beats. However, it also offers artists the opportunity to distribute their music through most digital music platforms and keep all of their earnings.
When you use the search at the top of the BeatStars site, you can purchase beats sorted by any genre, beats per minute, strict instrumentals, energies, and instruments, and even select the key of the melody.
All of the beats are displayed with prices, and some are appended with a download icon, which allows you to download the track.
Spinrilla
Download: Spinrilla for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Themed to the genre of hip-hop, Spinrilla provides a giant collection of hip-hop music in a digital mixtape app.
Host to the world’s largest catalog of up-and-coming hip-hop acts, you can listen to and download music before anyone else learns about it, being at the forefront of fresh hip-hop musical content.
Offline listening through downloads is permitted, and many songs are listed free of charge for material sampling before you buy the album.
Tribe of Noise
Visit: Tribe of Noise website
The goal of Tribe of Noise is to connect artists with those who want to use original music in their projects or business ventures.
Many of the musicians on Tribe of Noise upload their music to the platform to connect.
Anyone who registers at the site can browse the curated lists to find the music they need in the style they need but are working on a budget. Many tracks are made available for free, requiring no licensing.
In recent years, Tribe of Noise also acquired a free music archive (FMA), another open music platform, so the number of free tracks available to download on the platform is higher than ever.
DatPiff
Download: DatPiff for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
DatPiff has been a heavy promoter of thousands of mixtapes for a decade and a half and has many successful mixtape releases to their credit.
Contemporary big-name acts like Chance The Rapper, Wiz Khalifa, The Weekend, Mac Miller, and more have used the service.
You can search by singles, mixtapes, or upcoming material from up-and-coming artists, DJs, and beatmakers. Many of the tracks are available for free download through the website but not the app.
ReverbNation
Download: ReverbNation for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
Many indie and up-and-coming artists choose the ReverbNation platform to share their music with the world.
At this site, you can discover artists in any genre imaginable, review top-performing charts, and make crowd-favorite recommendations.
Many artists share full albums with many tracks that you can stream, purchase, or download in mp3 format. It is also a great platform for artists to hone their craft with helpful advice articles and collaboration through a social platform with others.
Downloading music is the current means of musical consumption. Many download tracks because streaming services, while widely available, do not guarantee musical longevity for any artist on their platform.
Label disputes and artists’ quirks can cause your favorite albums to be yanked from streaming service platforms, but downloading the songs can ensure that you keep them in your possession at your leisure.
If we missed any of the best free music download apps for Android and iOS, please let us know in the comments!
Most of the streaming music services are not free, but you have to subscribe to their service. Luckily, most of them own a free trial. To download Amazon Music, you can convert Amazon Music tracks to mp3 with Tunelf Amatune Music Converter during the trial. Once converted, you can transfer the converted tracks to any device you like, such as an mp3 player, smart watch, and so on. In all, Amazon Music will provide you a pretty good listening experience.
Hey Nikky, thanks for the tip. Very helpful.