Last Updated on February 13, 2023
Free Music Download Sites: There are several websites that offer catalogs of free music to download. You can find free music downloads on the Internet without relying on a streaming subscription. Sites like Free Music Archive, SoundCloud, and BandCamp make it easy to download music legally and for free.
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10 Best Free Music Download Sites
Here are the best free music download websites.
1. Free Music Archive
Founded by East Coast radio station WFMU in 2009, Free Music Archive is a clearinghouse for free original music uploaded by independent artists. It has a clean and simple interface that’s easily browsable by a dozen genres and countless sub-genres. The site has its own player where you can make playlists, or you can download tracks and reuse them via a Creative Commons license.
2. SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a music streaming and sharing platform that allows artists to connect with listeners and offer tracks directly to fans. While SoundCloud has paid subscription plans, you can listen to tracks on the site for free with a basic account. Moreover, artists have the option to make their tracks available for download for free, so it’s possible to download some music in a variety of formats. To download a track, hover over it in the player and then click the three-dot More button. If it’s downloadable, you’ll see a Download file menu option.
3. Bandcamp
Bandcamp has been around since 2008, serving as an online storefront for independent artists who can sell their music directly to fans. If you’re a music lover, Bandcamp is like a musical candy store with content in dozens of categories from rock to reggae plus music for kids and even audiobooks. Unfortunately, Bandcamp doesn’t have a way to browse for free music baked into its navigation, but it’s still simple to do. To find free music at Bandcamp, search for “free downloads” and you can then browse tracks you can either simply download for free or name your own price (and you can name zero dollars).
4. The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library that is on a mission to curate and catalog millions of books, music, software, websites, and more. It operates the Wayback Machine, for example, which you can use to see websites as they were at various times in the past. It also has a vast library of songs, concerts, audio books, podcasts, 78 rpm records, and more in the site’s Audio Archive, where you can browse by countless filtering criteria including musical genres. Not everything here is available to download, but when music is downloadable, you have numerous file format options.
5. NoiseTrade
NoiseTrade is one of the unusual free music download sites you’ll encounter. A subset of the Paste Magazine website, it connects artists directly to fans by letting you stream music and, in most cases, download tracks for free. And you don’t get to choose individual tracks if you want to download music, you get all the tracks in the collection from a particular artist in a single zip file. NoiseTrade features some mainstream artists in a wide range of genres, and the only thing you need to do to download tracks is provide your email address so artists can connect with you.
6. ReverbNation
ReverbNation was launched in 2006 as a central hub for musicians, producers, venues and others in the music industry to collaborate and communicate. It’s also a venue for music fans to discover and connect with news artists. To that end, you can browse and search for music, use the built-in player, and download tracks as well. To find music that artists have designated as free to download, use the site’s search page and click the Free MP3s Required checkbox on the left. All search results will feature tracks you can download for free.
7. Last.fm
Last.fm was once a popular destination for streaming music for free in the early days of the internet, but the site discontinued its streaming services in 2014 and now serves primarily as a destination for making music recommendations based on users’ listening habits. Even so, there is still a small catalog of free music here that you can legally download for free. The Download Free Music page at Last.fm has a simple, unsearchable list of 227 songs you can play and download in MP3 format. There’s no indication of style or genre, so making use of this library requires some exploration.
8. Jamendo Music
Based in Luxembourg, Jamendo Music provides free streaming and download services with licensing for artists. That means Jamendo’s audio catalog is more strictly curated than other websites on our list, with A&R services that help artists find partnerships for monetizing their content.
On the user side, Jamendo is divided into a streaming/download section and a content licensing section. From its main interface, you have several ways to find new music. Explore music using tags and playlists, check out genre-based Radio stations, and listen to spotlighted albums and mixes.
9. Beatstars
Beatstars is primarily a platform for producers to buy and sell beats, but the site also provides a ton of free music downloads. While not every track on the platform is freely available, you can download most of them for free. Just look for the “Free” tag to find options to download files.
The cost of free downloads is offset by charging beatmakers to use tracks in their works. Licensing is a major part of Beatstars’ business model, and Lil Nas X actually bought the beat for “Old Town Road” at Beatstars. The site also has a very popular mobile app you can download from Google Play and the App Store.
10. Audiomack
Since its launch in 2012, Audiomack has grown into a major platform for music lovers and artists alike. And in the coming years, Audiomack plans to expand the ways in which artists and fans can connect with one another, monetize their content, and more. While listening is always free, it’s up to rights holders to determine what songs you can download. Audiomack continues to grow thanks to an active community of listeners and successful partnerships with artists, including major releases with Chance the Rapper and Nicki Minaj. It also has an extremely popular mobile app you can download via Google Play and the App Store.