High Resolution Audio’s guide to getting the best free streaming for your musical entertainment.
What is the best free music streaming service?
No one quite knows the origin of the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’ but this applies to music streaming much like most other things in life. Most of the free offerings come with some sort of restriction such as ads, reduced audio quality, limited features such as no skipping or reduced access to the streamer’s complete catalogue or some combination of the above. However, if you are listening on a mobile device on a noisy commute or want some background music while you are exercising or working then most of these free services will fit the bill.
Types of free music streaming services
- Ad-supported – Amazon Free, Deezer Free, IDAGIO Free, Spotify Free and YouTube Music Free.
- Bundled with a paid for subscription – Amazon Music Prime which comes with Amazon’s Prime membership is a good example.
- Free trial offerings – These can vary from as little as 14 days to up to 4 months during promotions like Black Friday. These are normally around 1 month/30 days. However as none of them tie you into a contract you are able to cancel at any time which makes this a great way to sample the various paid for options with no obligations.
- Bundled with other purchases – Both Amazon and Apple offer free subscription periods on sales of their audio products. Apple’s current offer is for a 6-month free subscription on qualifying purchases.
- Package deals – Mobile and broadband suppliers sometimes produce packages with music streaming subscriptions having more generous data allowances.
- Radio-like services – Sonos Radio, Digitally Imported and similar.
- Public libraries – ‘Free’ from your local library or University library which UK residents will have paid for with their Council Tax. Check out our article on Free music from your local library for more details.
Recommendations for best Free music streaming services
If you have an Amazon Prime account (and nearly half of all UK households have one!) then Amazon Music Prime is one of the best free music streaming services to get. With full ad-free access to Amazon Music Unlimited’s complete catalogue, unlimited skips and some download options it is hard to beat.
Spotify Free has around 350 million users worldwide which speaks volumes for the quality of its music and podcast content. With a 160kbps AAC stream its audio quality is more than adequate for mobile listening if not up to hifi standards and represents a good choice.
Deezer is not the most popular music streamer in the UK but with its extensive catalogue, Flow discovery feature and 320kbps MP3 streaming its Deezer Free service is definitely one to try.
The best of the rest
We have probably all used the free version of YouTube Music at some point usually after a Google search. With many households subscribing to YouTube for the video content then YouTube Music comes as part of the package and it would be hard to justify switching music streamers when it comes in for free.
Music streamers with free streaming services
Amazon Music Free/Amazon Music Prime
Amazon Music Free is an ad-supported free service offering access to selected playlists and stations, with skip limits (maximum 6 times per hour) and shuffle playback. It is available in the UK and US and most of western Europe. There is no offline playback available and although the most popular devices are supported there are some gaps. Amazon doesn’t specify its audio quality but says its standard audio quality is ‘up to 320kbps’.
Amazon Music Prime is a benefit of Amazon Prime membership and so effectively comes to you free as most folk are likely to enrol in Prime for Amazon’s free delivery and discount options. This is an ad-free service offering access to the full Amazon Music Unlimited catalogue (100 million songs) in standard quality audio (up to 320kbps). There are no skip limits and you can download songs that are in the All-Access Playlists for offline playback. Ad-free podcasts are available although there are some restrictions on Fire devices.
Deezer Free
Deezer Free is an ad-supported service with shuffle-based streaming. Many of the Deezer Premium features are included like Flow, SongCatcher and Lyrics. This gives you access to Deezer’s 120 million tracks and you also get personalised mixes and playlists. Audio quality can be either Basic (6kbps), Standard (128kbps) or High Quality (320kbps) MP3 for both mobile and desktop apps. Offline listening is not available in this plan.
Digitally Imported
Digitally Imported is an online radio network specialising in Electronic Music. Its premium plans give you access to over 200 channels which are available in 320kbps MP3 or 128kbps AAC. Signing up for their Free service give you access to 8 daily channels and 6 playlists which are rotated every day. These are streamed without interruptions at their Free audio quality of 64kbps AAC.
IDAGIO Free
IDAGIO Free gives you access to their complete Classical Music catalogue (2 million tracks) in radio mode, meaning you can select and play any album, playlist, recording or composer, and they will play you recommendations based on that selection. Audio quality is IDAGIO’s ‘Normal’ setting which is 160kbps AAC in their iOS app, 192kbps AAC in their Android app and 192kbps MP3 in their webplayer and desktop apps.
Sonos
Sonos Radio is an ad-supported online radio streaming service via the Sonos app which in addition to giving you access to internet radio stations also has a range of Sonos curated radio stations which are also available in CD Quality Lossless FLAC for subscribers of Sonos Radio HD. The streaming bitrate of the free service is 128kbps.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud Free is an ad-supported streaming service giving you access to millions of tracks but not the complete catalogue. Offline listening is only available on their paid subscription plans and audio quality is 64kbps.
Spotify Free
Spotify Free is an ad-supported streaming service which is restricted to shuffle play and a limitation of 6 song skips per hour. However, the free service has full access to Spotify’s catalogue of music and podcasts but offline listening is restricted to paid subscriptions. Audio quality is 128kbps AAC on the webplayer and 160kbps AAC on mobile and desktop apps,
YouTube Music Free
YouTube Music Free is an ad-supported streaming service. Offline listening is only available on paid subscriptions and audio quality is limited to 128kbps AAC. On the plus side there are unlimited song skips, access to the entire content library and the ability to skip ads after 5 seconds.
Music streamers with no free streaming services
Apple Music
Apple Music has no free streaming service. There is a 1 month free trial and purchasers of Apple audio devices like AirPods, HomePod or Beats can get 6 months free with eligible purchases.
Napster
Napster has no free streaming service. There is a 30 day free trial.
Qobuz
Qobuz has no free streaming service. There is a 30 day free trial.
TIDAL
TIDAL Free was a free service available only in the US. It has now been withdrawn. There is only a 30 day free trial available.
Try before you buy
All of our top choice music streamers offer a free trial period so you have the opportunity to try all of them before committing to any one of them. None of them tie you into a contract so you are able to cancel at any time.
Other sources of free music
Public Libraries
- Local libraries – Your local library can be a surprisingly rich source of free music. Many libraries lend CDs but you may not realise that many offer free streaming using services like Freegal and Naxos. Citizens in the UK will have free library access paid for via your Council Tax and this seems like a resource you shouldn’t pass by.
- University libraries – In addition to supporting their students, many of these make their specialist collections available to the public.
- National libraries – The British Library in the UK and the Library of Congress in the US are some examples of vast repositories of audio material.
For more information on how to get music go to our post on Free music from your local library.
Internet Radio
There are literally thousands of radio stations broadcasting for free offering every kind of music, talk radio and drama from around the world. Apps are also available for iOS and Android which give access to every kind of content. For hifi enthusiasts/audiophiles there are now over 50 internet radio stations broadcasting CD Quality lossless FLAC and a few that broadcast in HiRes. See our articles on high quality internet radio.
CD Quality Internet Radio
HiRes Internet Radio
How to listen to lossless FLAC internet radio with free media players
How to listen to lossless FLAC internet radio with your browser
BBC
The BBC, the UK’s national broadcaster, has created an app called Sounds which enables listeners to tune into UK national and local radio stations, podcasts and a wealth of archive recordings going back decades such as episodes of Desert Island Discs going back to 1951.
Radio Aggregators
These are essentially electronic programme guides for internet radio stations. They often have their own apps and stream radio stations via web portals and these apps. The drawback to some of these sites is that they often stream in fairly low audio quality and in the case of the UK and some other countries, many of the internet stations are blocked due to copyright issues. You may find a better quality stream going directly to the radio station’s website. Some of the more popular aggregators and internet radio directory listings are below:
Recent articles of interest
Global on-demand audio streams reached 4.1 Tn in 2023
Google publishes top searches of 2023
Fans around the world are listening to more music than ever
