Illegally downloading music isn’t an option if you’re looking to support the artists and producers who enrich our lives — as you should be.
As any true music lover knows, you should try to support the people who make your favorite tunes. Downloading may not be as popular as streaming music, and there are some convenient ways to stream your favorite tracks for free, such as Apple Music and Spotify. But if you don’t want to pay, streaming options beyond that are fairly limited. So, what are the best free music download sites?
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Below are a few of our favorites, so you can keep the tunes going even when your car rounds the next bend or Comcast decides to cut you off. Many of these sites are void of Billboard artists like Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar, but if you look in the right spots, you’ll find a few hits from some big names, along with scores of independent artists that should keep your ears happy and your wallet heavy.
Free Music Archive
In 2009, New Jersey-based WFMU Radio embarked on a project to make contemporary music of all genres available to the public, and the Free Music Archive was born. Since its inception, WFMU has partnered with dozens of other curators, and the site has become a veritable treasure trove of free content.
The site combines two different approaches to posting tracks: First, it indexes free music posted by all of its partner curators, and second, it allows users to post their own music directly to the archives. This synthesis of sources creates a mind-boggling library of tracks that you could literally spend months browsing through, whether you choose to do so by curator or genre. In addition, the site hosts a myriad of podcasts, and renowned radio stations such as Seattle’s KEXP frequently post live cuts from their studio sessions with big-name acts passing through. The smash tracks may lack some post-production, but they’re also free.
SoundCloud
Not every song posted on SoundCloud is free (or good, for that matter), but both big-name and lesser-known artists often offer free downloads if you can manage to find their verified profile — though sometimes you may have to drop them a like on Facebook or a follow on Twitter for the privilege. You can browse SoundCloud by artist, genre, popularity, or latest postings; you will be surprised at how many free tracks can be found. There is also a section of the site dedicated to tracks released under Creative Commons licenses, which means you’re free to download, remix, or tweak them as much as you like.
SoundCloud essentially serves as the YouTube of music uploading, in the sense that anyone can upload their tracks before specifying whether they’re available for download or strictly for streaming purposes. Moreover, the site touts an extremely active user community and one of the sleekest user interfaces of any site on our list, one conveniently lined with a navigational bar at the top and direct access to the service’s accompanying mobile apps. Fair warning: SoundCloud’s had a bit of financial trouble recently, so you might want to visit the site soon and go on a downloading spree just in case the site goes kaput.
Downloadable Music For Free For Mp3 Players DownloadReverbNation
Big names like Alabama Shakes, The Civil Wars, and Imagine Dragons all got their start on ReverbNation by sharing their music for free and building up their loyal fanbase. There is a mix of every genre on ReverbNation, but the site tends to lean toward more pop, alternative, and hip-hop than anything else. With a community of nearly 4 million artists, labels, and users, ReverbNation helps you sift through its immersive catalog with cool features like the site’s Discover app and a page that will help you find who is about to be the next big thing.
Amazon
You’re probably used to using this online retailer to buy everything from the best headphones to dog food, so why not add some free music to your shopping list? Believe it or not, Amazon has a massive assortment of thousands of free tunes available via its digital music arm, letting you pick through everything from obscure indie and classical music to hits by the Foo Fighters. There are a lot of free streaming options, but classic big-name artists like Carole King also have tracks to download if you do a little digging. Checkout is quick and painless, and it works just like buying a song that costs money on Amazon, sans payment. Simply add a song to your shopping cart, check out, and the tunes are yours.
DatPiff
Rap lovers, rejoice! Since the mid-aughts, the hip-hop community has become a veritable breeding ground for free music, much of which comes in the form of mixtapes. Some are original compilations by artists looking to cop some shine, some feature rappers freestyling over popular instrumentals from their contemporaries, and some are just dropped by artists looking to reward their loyal fans with some free tunes — we’re looking at you, Curren$y.
DatPiff is also the only site on this list that consistently offers free music from mainstream artists — think Future and Drake — and remains the No. 1 spot for fans to download new tapes, view release schedules, and listen to fan-made compilation albums. The site even features a pop-out player so you can listen before you download, as well as a news aggregator that collects stories from sites like HipHopEarly.
Audiomack
There’s now a new kid on the block that’s challenging DatPiff’s domination. It’s called Audiomack, and it’s home to what’s fast been branded the best collection of hip-hop, rap and trap — comprising of everything from smash hits from heavyweights like Kodak Black to viral tracks from emerging artists like NBA YoungBoy. As of late, however, a lot of creators have decided to disable downloads, instead opting to utilizing the service’s streaming feature; although rest assured, there is still a large amount of downloadable material on there, including some mixtapes by Migos, Playboi Carti, and Rich The Kid.
Live Music Archive is essentially a partnership between Internet Archive and etree.org, a community dedicated to providing high-quality, lossless versions of live concerts. You can think of it as a bootlegger’s paradise given the site’s sheer abundance of concert material, much of which focuses on jam bands such as the Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident, and Sound Tribe Sector 9. Still, there are a host of other bands to choose from — The Smashing Pumpkins, Jack Johnson, Animal Collective, etc. — along with plenty of genres to browse, ranging from jazz to reggae.
Navigation is a bit of a chore due to the overwhelming wealth of content, but there are ways to filter the results by title, publish date, or original creator. Once you find a particular show, you can often stream or download the individual tracks as a FLAC or MP3, allowing you to play the tracks in your media player of choice. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t ensure a quality performance — so we’d recommend previewing anything that sounds like it could tickle your fancy using Live Music Archive’s web player before taking the plunge and downloading it for local playback.
Jamendo
With hundreds of thousands of tracks from thousands of artists, Jamendo is easily one of the biggest repositories of free music on the web. You won’t find all of your favorite artists here, but the site’s streamlined user interface makes it great for browsing and finding talented new musicians. Instead of browsing by genre, you peruse tracks by popularity, most downloaded, most played, or latest release. Popularity is based on user ratings, so despite the massive number of tracks on the site, you don’t have to spend a lot of time searching before you find stuff that pleases your ears. To be sure, the site’s penchant for lesser-known artists and experimental tracks makes it more suited for someone looking for something new rather than specific artists.
NoiseTrade
NoiseTrade is one part free music site, one part promotion platform. You can download any individual track or album an independent artist uploads to the site if, in turn, you generously supply them with your email address and postal code. The freemium promotion platform also encourages you to spread the word about artists you like via Facebook and Twitter while giving you the option to quickly tip the artist a suggested $4 donation.
The site’s user interface is also remarkably clean and simple, allowing you to effortlessly search or browse artists within a visual hub loaded with recommendations and complimentary mixtapes that cover a wide swath of genres, musicians, and forthcoming events. Furthermore, the site often boasts exclusive samplers and releases from artists before they premiere elsewhere, along with corresponding links that connect you with artists’ social-media pages and management. Some of our favorite albums being offered last time we checked? Wild Ones’ Keep it Safeand John Prine’s Live in Asheville ’86.
Musopen
If you’re a fan of classical music, finding free downloads is easy — after all, most classical compositions and many performances have long been in the public domain. Musopen, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and accessibility of classical music, hosts an impressive library of compositions without any copyright restrictions. Users can browse by composer or performer, or filter results based on the time period and instrument. Whether you enjoy the complex arrangements of the Baroque period or the fierce passion of the Romantics, Musopen probably has what you’re looking for.
The selections are available for streaming or downloading — some even in high resolution — and the site offers a copious amount of helpful background info for your perusal. If you’re curious what a rondo is or what defined Chopin’s style, you can learn all that here. Musicians may also be delighted to learn that the site provides sheet music, so if you find yourself falling in love with a particular piece, you can follow along or even learn to play it.
Last.fm
When Last.fm was initially created in 2002, it functioned as an internet radio station in a similar fashion to Pandora and iHeartRadio. In 2005, however, the site adopted Audioscrobbler, a music-recommendation system that collects data from dozens of media players and music-streaming websites to craft individual user profiles that reflect their musical taste and listening habits. Last.fm has now “scrobbled” info from nearly 100 billion plays, which total more than 7 million years’ worth of listening.
Unbeknownst to many Last.fm users, though, is the site’s repository of free music. It’s accessible via the “Free Music Downloads” link at the bottom of the page — or here — and offers a fairly diverse library of free music, ranging from Sufjan Stevens to The Glitch Mob. It’s eclectic, if limited, and totally free.
Editors' Recommendations
Where do you get new music? Do you buy CDs or purchase music from digital stores like iTunes and Amazon? Even now, in the era of fast Internet and smartphones, free MP3s are not easily available. However, there are some websites like MP3Jam that supply their admirers with MP3 songs free-of-charge. To fill your MP3 player with different tracks you simply need to download MP3 songs you like and transfer them to your player. Actually, the need to download songs is quite debatable since Freemake Music Box for iOS was released. But if you still prefer saving the passionately-adored compositions on PC and upload them later to a portable device for offline playback, discover the list of best websites to download MP3 songs for free.
YouTube
Yes, don’t be shocked! YouTube is number one if you can use it properly. That means that your closest friend might have free Freemake Youtube to MP3 Boom, which rapidly downloads the required tracks in MP3 format.
How to download MP3 songs?
1. Search for a piece of music on YouTube.
2. Copy the link of the page with the video.
3. Past the link into Freemake YouTube MP3 Boom and hit Enter.
4. Click the down arrow to download the track.
Alternatively, you may search for YouTube compositions without opening YouTube itself, just in the MP3 Boom. What you need to do is to type a song title, artist or album name into a Search box and press Enter on your keyboard. While typing you’ll see smart suggestions, just like in Google. Click one of them if it’s right what you are looking for. When you get search results, click an arrow to the left of a song to download it or Download all button in case you want to save all the tracks.
You can learn how to use Freemake Youtube MP3 Boom and enjoy all its functions to the full. The easiest way for those who want to have a digital music library on their PC.
Free Downloads For Mp3 Players Legally
SEE ALSO: 5 Best iPhone Music Streaming Apps
SEE ALSO: Top 5 iPhone Music Downloaders
Jamendo.com
On jamendo.com people share their music for free for commercial use. It leads to a rain of musical compositions, making it a bit hard to find the needed one. But if you manage, you will discover a lot of curious song variants. So if you need to add a music track to your video and don’t want to have any troubles with your account, then go to jamendo.com and search for some great piece of music. Check most popular, most downloaded, recent and most played tracks. When you are done, click Download button to get the track.
SoundCloud.com
SoundCloud is one of the most famous sites where you can download music legally. As well as on YouTube, here you can find variety of audio tracks: remixes, karaoke, unreleased tracks and many more. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to download the majority of popular songs due to legal issues, they are available only for listening. Yet, there are so many new bands and singers that you’ll for sure find something to your liking. By the way, most of them have great remixes on famous tracks that you’ll never hear elsewhere. So, don’t waste your time and create a SoundCloud account right now. If you don’t want to complete a registration form, you can sign up with your Facebook or G+ accounts. Then search for a track or band. If it’s available for downloading, you’ll see a Download button under a track. The song will be downloaded onto your PC.
Last.fm
Last.fm is famous for a great music collection. You might think that’s it’s only possible to stream tracks without downloading them. That’s not completely true. On Last.fm you can find a section with free music downloads. It has plenty of genres that you’ll see in the left column. Choose a genre and check what tracks you can get. When you find something great, you need to only click a blue Free Download button to get this song onto your PC. Unfortunately, music quality is not stated, but you can listen to a track before downloading it. Of course, free section is not that huge like YouTube one, but still you can find some old tracks to recall great moments.
Wikipedia.org
It may sound crazy, but you can find free music on…Wikipedia. It’s media library is not that big and includes mostly classical tracks. Yet, if you enjoy listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Wikipedia is a right choice. The main drawback is navigation. There are no genres, quality choice or search box and instead of a songartist name you see a complete URL. If you still want to download a track from Wikipedia, then copy the link you need and open it in another tab. Preview the track. After that right click on it and choose Save video as… or Save audio as… depending on your browser and save the track on your PC. It’ll be saved in .ogg format. You may use free Freemake Music Box to play it.
Musopen.org
Musopen.org is also a nice source of free instrumental music, especially for those who learn and teach to play music instruments. There you will also find sheet music and educational materials for a number of instruments. If you want to download a specific composition, you need to create an account. After that search music by composer, performer or instrument. Click the one you need and choose a track you want to download. Listen to the composition to check it’s quality and then click an arrow to download the track onto a harddrive.
Amazon.com
Amazon.com is the most famous site for online shopping. Here you can get literally everything starting from a dress and ending up with automobile wheels. And of course here you’ll find tons of music: rare vinyl records, modern CDs, digital free and paid tracks. No doubts, you won’t be able to download the latest hits for free. However, free music library is quite huge and lets you choose from a variety of bands and genres. Check the left column and choose a genre you need. Then sort music by artist, song, album, or time. Preview the song before saving it. Then just click a yellow Free button, enter you login details and download a song.
Noisetrade.com
With noisetrade.com you can find a lot of music compositions and download them trouble free. The interface is quite stylish, which makes it pleasant to navigate on the site. You’ll find new, latest and trending charts to choose from. Unfortunately, noisetrade.com doesn’t show the track quality, but it lets listen to a song before downloading it. Thus, more or less you’ll be able to decide whether you still want to download a track or not. Moreover, each album contains a brief description and info about similar artists to check. To download a track you need to sign in with your Facebook account. After that click orange Download music button and what till the track is saved on your PC.
Vimeo.com
Looks strange, doesn’t it? But yes, apart of videos, Vimeo has a music library. And it’s quite good! Unfortunately, there are not that much filters for music search. Choose a free price range to get only tracks available for downloading. Use hashtags like “guitar music”, “rock music” or any other to describe what you are looking for in a search box. If you need, you may check the video associated with a particular song. If everything is ok, click the green arrow, and insert your Vimeo login data to download a song.
What composition are you searching for? Bless your headphones and let the music play!
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Knowing where to get music during the age of albums and tapes was easy. The local record shop was essentially the only option if you were looking to pick up some new music. But today, an MP3 player can hold seemingly endless hours of music--so how do you fill it up? Read on for some suggestions on how to top off your MP3 player.
Pre-existing Songs on Your Computer
If you already have a collection of MP3s or other audio files on your computer, moving them to your MP3 player is a snap. Some Windows-compatible MP3 players simply show up in the My Computer screen and allow you to drag and drop your media. Other players include extra software to assist you in this task.
If you have a lot of music on your computer that isn't in MP3 format, make sure the player you purchase supports the format you need. If you already have an MP3 player and it doesn't recognize your media, several programs on the market will convert assorted audio formats to MP3.
Also, make sure that your MP3s are tagged correctly. MP3 players read artist, song, and other information from the ID3 tag that is embedded in the MP3 file. Navigating through a music collection is a pain if these tags are blank or incorrect. Many third-party programs can scan your music collection and automatically update ID3 tags via the Internet.
Ripping Your CD Collection
An MP3 player allows you to consolidate huge stacks of CDs into one compact unit. Most MP3 players come with a program that will 'rip' songs from your CDs onto your computer. If yours didn't come with one, many software programs are available to assist you. Both Windows Media Player 10 and a third-party program called Nero can easily rip songs to MP3 format. Technically inclined owners can use Exact Audio Copy and LAME, a pair of free open-source programs, to pull songs from their CDs and encode them into a variety MP3 formats. Or, to save time, Riptopia is a service that converts your CDs to high-quality MP3 files for you at a rate of just $.99 per CD. Riptopia is available in packages of 50, 100, or 200 CDs.
Subscription-based Services
Several subscription based services let you fill your MP3 player with thousands of songs for a low monthly fee. The largest of these are Napster and Rhapsody. You can purchase individual songs from either company; however, their main business model is closer to renting than owning. Songs acquired through the monthly subscription fee are in WMA format and encoded with Digital Rights Management (DRM) to prevent unauthorized duplication, so make sure that your MP3 player is compatible with this format. Both Napster and Rhapsody provide DRM-free songs that are compatible with a wider variety of MP3 players, including iPods, but you must purchase these songs individually. If you discontinue your Napster or Rhapsody subscription, songs that you have not individually purchased will deactivate and cease to work.
If you have or are considering a Zune, the Zune Pass is a subscription-based service that accompanies the player. For $14.99 per month, you can download and listen to millions of tracks from Zune Marketplace whenever you want. The songs are yours to keep as long as you keep your Zune Pass valid. The Zune Pass can be purchased for either one or three months at a time. Songs that you download with a Zune Pass can be copied to up to three computers and three Zune devices, but they can't be burned to CD. Learn more about the Zune Ecosystem or read through the Zune Help Guide for more information.
Peer-to-Peer Networks
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks started the online music craze and have polarized the music industry. Virtually every album released today is available through them; however, most P2P sites have no permission to distribute copyrighted music. This has led to highly publicized website shutdowns and numerous lawsuits against downloaders. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) employs several companies who do nothing but monitor P2P activity and report illegal file trading to copyright holders. If you value your criminal record, stick with MP3s from legitimate sources.
Cassettes and Albums
You have several ways to usher your crates of records and shoeboxes full of cassettes into the digital age. An MP3 player equipped with a line-in port can connect directly to your record or cassette player, allowing you to record and save your music collection right on the device. If you already have an MP3 player, consider a USB turntable. It can record albums directly to your computer. Or, check out the Ion Tape2PC and BTO PlusDeck2c, both of which enable you to convert your cassette collection to digital. These items typically include software that can filter out pops, scratches, and tape hiss--leaving you with clean digital recordings of your vintage tunes.
Online Music Stores
Browsing, sampling, and buying music through online shops is quick and easy. Online music stores offer millions of songs for you to purchase, usually for around a dollar each. To deter the unscrupulous and maintain their business model, many companies pack Digital Rights Management (DRM) into each song to prevent unauthorized copies. This can make selecting the right online shop a confusing matter, since some MP3 players might not be compatible with a particular store's file format or DRM. Here is a rundown of some of the major online music stores, and which players are compatible.
Amazon MP3
You can find millions of songs from your favorite artists right here at Amazon.com. Leawo itransfer free download. Most songs are between $0.89 and $0.99, and most albums are between $5.99 and $9.99. Best of all, every song from Amazon MP3 is DRM-free and encoded in high-quality 256-kbps MP3 format. This means that they will play on any MP3 player, so you don't need to worry about file format compatibility or licenses that expire.
Using the Amazon MP3 online store is easy. You can browse by price or genre; shop Top Downloads or New and Future Releases; and search for songs, albums, or artists using the search box at the top of any Amazon MP3 storefront page. All songs have 30-second samples, and every album has a Preview All button--allowing you to 'audition' every track. Once you sign up, you'll find that the 1-Click ordering makes buying music very easy. Additionally, the Amazon MP3 Downloader application lets you download entire albums with one click and automatically adds your music to iTunes or Windows Media Player.
iTunes
Apple's iTunes store offers millions of songs, most of which are $0.99. Browsing and buying is easy, and the iTunes software also lets you create playlists, burn CDs, subscribe to podcasts, and even print jewel case inserts. Songs purchased from iTunes are protected with Apple's FairPlay DRM. All iPod players are compatible with this format, but very few other players are. According to Apple, the Creative Labs Nomad line and SonicBlue Rio series can play songs downloaded from iTunes. If you have a non-iPod player, check the specifications to ensure compatibility before you purchase music from iTunes.
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Zune Marketplace
Like Amazon MP3 and iTunes, Microsoft's Zune Marketplace offers millions of songs to buy through a slick interface. To purchase songs, you must first buy Microsoft Points--a system that Xbox users are familiar with. Each block of 400 points costs $5, and the standard price for a song is 79 points. This makes the actual price about $0.99. The Zune Marketplace also has a subscription service called Zune Pass. For $14.99 a month, you can stream and download as many songs as you want; songs can be copied to up to three computers and three Zune devices. Until recently, all songs purchased from Zune Marketplace had proprietary DRM. Microsoft now offers the majority of its music catalog as DRM-free MP3 downloads; however, the Zune Marketplace software will sync with Zune MP3 players only. If you have a non-Zune player, you'll have to manually copy Zune Marketplace downloads on your own.
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