Isn’t it true that everyone enjoys obtaining something for nothing? What if we told you we’d discovered five entirely legal and legitimate free music download sites? All of the websites we’ve highlighted provide free audio downloads, making it a risk-free method to discover new bands and musicians.
If you like what you hear and can afford it, you can opt to support them by paying to download more of their content.
Here are five free music download sites that we enjoy browsing, listed in alphabetical order.
1. FMA (Free Music Archive)
The Free Music Archive, or FMA, was launched in 2009 by radio station WFMU and is now owned by music platform and licencing firm Tribe of Noise. The site provides free access to original music that is openly licenced.
According to the FMA, tens of millions of people download music for personal use each month, and many of them share and remix FMA music in videos, podcasts, films, games, applications, and even school projects.
You may search for music that is free for personal use by genre. Blues, electronic, hip-hop, jazz, pop, rock, country, folk, classical, soul, and R’n’B are just a few of the genres, as are spoken material, experimental audio, and old time/historical music.
The fact that those genres are divided into sub-genres is very appealing to us. Jungle, techno, chill-out, trip-hop, and dubstep, for example, are sub-categories of electronic music.
To discover material, you may use keyword searches. You may listen to music on the site and then download it by clicking the download button when you discover something you like. You may even make your own “mixes” by adding music.
2. Jamendo Music
3. Indie Folk
ReverbNation has been providing an internet streaming service for musicians to showcase their work and for fans to enjoy it since 2006. ReverbNation is primarily a music streaming service that also allows users to buy songs. Artists may also select varying rights for their material on the site, and some do choose to give free downloads.
If a music is available for download on ReverbNation, you’ll notice a little download icon next to the song’s duration. To save it to your PC, simply click it.
Some artists and bands may ask you to “Like” their page, share it, or sign up for their mailing list, but if you like the song, it shouldn’t be a problem.
The incredibly clean design and easy user interface of ReverbNation appeal to us. To listen to new music selected by ReverbNation’s Curation Team, simply click “Play” on any of the highlighted collections.
You may explore or check what’s fresh in your favourite genres using the sidebar. You may add music to your collection or share it with friends and on social media whenever you find something you like.
4. SoundClick
SoundClick is the oldest service we’re promoting, and it’s a genuine pioneer in internet music. SoundClick was founded in 1997 by twin brothers Tanju and Tolgar Canli with the purpose of “working on behalf of musicians to make their music easily available online.”
SoundClick is a social music platform with a strong social component. You receive your own personal page with picture albums and video uploads when you sign up. It’s also possible to make your own SoundClick stations.
On the site, you may listen to music and download it. Many tracks are available for free download in MP3 format for personal use, however be warned that some are exclusively available for purchase.
Tracks that can be downloaded are easily identified by the download icon to the right of the screen.
5. SoundCloud
Launched in 2008, SoundCloud claims to be the “world’s largest music and audio platform.” SoundCloud lets people discover a wide selection of music from a very diverse creator community; music and audio creators use SoundCloud to share their content with a global audience so we get to enjoy great music, for free, online.
SoundCloud features music from all the genres you’d expect. It’s super-simple to keyword search and find a track or SoundCloud playlist you like the look of. If you hear a song you particularly like, you can click through to see if it’s available as a free download.
