Music is one of the many joys of life. It can connect people, create or break your mood, remind you of certain memories or times of your life, or make us dance. So whether you need to stay focused with music or go for a drive to clear your head, there are plenty of music streaming services available today.
It’s well worth the money, but there are many that you can access for free.
Most paid services also offer free trials. We’ve listed a completely free tier of services here, but upgrade to a higher level of service to remove ads, increase the size of your music library, increase skips, and improve bitrate stream quality. You can improve it.
Spotify free
Overall the best free music service
quality: Up to 160kbps for mobile device users | Fi.les: MP3, M4P, MP4 | Library size: Over 82 million | platform: iOS and Android apps, desktop apps, web players, smart TV apps, connected speaker support, and cars
Our choice for the best free music service is Spotify. There is a paid subscription option, but the free version can be easily integrated into streaming devices such as Sonos that use its own native UX. However, there is plenty of content here to focus and enjoy genres such as rock, pop, indie, mood, new releases, slowbacks and charts. Free tiers are supported by ads, but I don’t think it’s too annoying.
Strong Points:
- Integrate with streaming devices
- Access all playlists, find new music and share songs with your friends
- Listen to the podcast
Cons: Disadvantages:
- I have an ad
- You can’t listen to songs or playlists offline
Amazon music
The perfect free music service for Prime customers
quality: Not applicable | File: Not applicable | Library size: Over 50 million (2 million free libraries for Prime users) | platform: iOS and Android apps, desktop apps, web players, connected speaker support, cars
The free tier for Prime users includes over 2 million songs, over 2,000 playlists and stations, unlimited skips, and offline playback. Full Tier will charge Prime Customers an additional fee of $ 7.99 per month. Non-Prime customers pay $ 9.99 per month. Amazon also offers Amazon Music HD, a lossless quality streaming service for Prime members, for $ 12.99.
Strong Points:
- Already comes with an Amazon Prime subscription
- Unlimited skip and offline playback
Cons: Disadvantages:
- You will have to pay Amazon Music Unlimited for the latest artist releases and exclusive songs and albums
YouTube music
The best free music service for lyrics
quality: 128kbps | File: AAC | Library size: Over 60 million | platform: iOS and Android apps
The search giant has a wide variety of music with great mobile apps, but is well supported by advertising. There are lots of live music recordings and great search capabilities. A distinguishing feature of YouTube Music is the ability to search for songs by lyrics.
Strong Points:
- Search for songs by lyrics
- Smart download function
Cons: Disadvantages:
- Little programming other than music like podcasts
- Poor audio quality compared to others
Pandora
The best free music service for carefully selected playlists
quality: 64kbps | File: Not applicable | Library size: Not applicable | platform: Integration of iOS and Android apps, web UX and smart devices
Pandora has been owned by satellite radio provider SiriusXM since 2019. With Pandora, music is created “thematically”. You have chosen a lot of artists, and it understands what tastes you have, and it gives you music based on that musical style. There are frequent advertisements.
Strong Points:
- Playlists carefully selected based on what you like
- Listen to the podcast
Cons: Disadvantages:
- Frequent advertising
- Skips are restricted and there are no custom playlists
iHeartRadio
Free music service ideal for live radio broadcasts
quality: 128kbps, 16bit | File: MP3, FLAC | Library size: 20 million | platform: iOS and Android apps, smart device integration, Web UX
iHeartRadio is like a hybrid of streaming platform and radio service. This is because we have over 20 million songs in stock that can be sorted and searched by artists. There are over 1,500 browseable radio stations. Stations / channels can be selected based on the performing artist (such as The Rolling Stones). Music is determined based on the artist’s musical style. You don’t have to be the artist itself, like Pandora.
Strong Points:
- Over 1,500 viewable radio stations
- Personalized music playlists and offline listening
Cons: Disadvantages:
- The amount of skips in the free tier is limited
What is the best free music service?
The best free music service is Spotify. You can access all your playlists, find new music, share songs with your friends for free, and listen to a variety of award-winning podcasts.
|
Free music service |
Audio quality |
Library size |
|
Spotify |
Up to 160kbps |
Over 82 million people |
|
Amazon music |
Not applicable |
2000000 |
|
YouTube music |
128kbps |
Over 60 million |
|
Pandora |
64kbps |
Not applicable |
|
iHeartRadio |
128kbps |
20 million |
Which free music service is right for me?
Price is not a factor in this situation, so the music streaming service that’s right for you will come down to your own taste. Each service has different interfaces and features, so compare these to the most important ones. You can try each service (because it’s all free) and make a decision from there.
|
Choose this free music service... |
if you want… |
|
Spotify |
Overall best option |
|
Amazon music |
Free music service with Amazon Prime benefits |
|
YouTube music |
Ability to search for songs by lyrics |
|
Pandora |
Playlists carefully selected based on your musical taste |
|
iHeartRadio |
To listen to live radio |
How did you choose these free music services?
We chose these free music services by combining research and use of the service. We compared factors such as audio quality, reviews (both good and bad), different features, and library size for each service to make the final choice.
What is a streaming platform?
Streaming platforms are cloud-based services that typically have a catalog of music sorted by genre or artist. These include album playlists or other thematic sorting methods (10 years, styles, moods, etc.) so you can access your music randomly. You have an app or website that can be integrated with smart speaker devices (Amazon Echo, Google Home, Sonos), but some (YouTube, Deezer, etc.) will have to pay for the premium tier.
Who has the largest streaming music library?
The music streaming service with the most tracks is Apple Music with 90 million songs at the time of this writing. However, Apple Music doesn’t have a free tier option, so you’ll have to pay a monthly fee to access its large library.
Are there alternative free music services to consider?
There are several other options to look for: