Despite the resurgence of physical media, most of us still use streaming music when we need our music fix. Most operate on a subscription basis, charging monthly fees for access to their vast music libraries, with other tiers available for other audio qualities. and/or multi-user access.
The challenge is that those monthly (or yearly) values continue to rise, regardless of which paid tier you choose, and for many, it can be tricky to include even the base tier value on their monthly bills. Music apps are popping up, and many platforms offer millions of songs (or radio stations and podcasts) for free.
Although the proliferation of music streaming apps has given users more options, it can be tricky to differentiate them. Spotify is lately the leader in free music, but it’s far from the only service available, nor the only one that offers a free tier. Each free platform we’ve tried and tested offers a variety of catalogs, features, and purposes, and we’re here to help you find the most productive option for you.
Learn more about our testing process here or continue scrolling to check out the free streaming platforms for music, radio, new tracks, or even music videos.
August 2024: We’re replacing static photos with multi-image galleries and delving a little deeper into the sound quality of installations below.
You can see a quick review of all the free streams on this list with a rundown of what they’re most productive at and why we think they’re worth checking out. If you want more details, simply click on a product photo to access the detailed entry.
There’s a clever explanation for why Spotify is the biggest streaming service on the market: it’s comprehensive, easy to use, and very accessible.
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If you are already a Prime member, the loose edition of Amazon Music is very affordable.
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The recently revamped French streaming service offers an extensive catalog of titles, many of which can be accessed for free and without too many obstacles.
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If music videos are your thing, you can’t get by with mixing streaming tracks and video content from YouTube Music.
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Radio is an underrated medium in the age of virtual streaming, so tune in to TuneIn to enjoy tons of amazing shows, news channels, and podcasts, all for free.
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BBC Sounds offers a wealth of diverse, high-quality content, adding full live radio broadcasts, podcasts and very good sports coverage.
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Anyone looking for emerging skills head over to Soundcloud. The amount of content to note is huge and you’ll never be far from a wonderful unsigned gem.
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If you’re in the United States, you can access the service’s first free plan, “Tidal Free,” which offers streams of Tidal’s entire library at 160kbps with some “limited dropouts. ”
I am a person who, like almost everyone of my generation, grew up listening to streaming platforms in all their countless forms. We use Tidal as our preferred streaming platform here at What Hi-Fi?, but I have extensive private experience with Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, BBC Sounds and even Deezer, so pretty much everything written here is included below from a first-hand point of view. Below, I’ve cataloged all of the most productive free apps available and then broken down the aspects that make them suitable, or even unsuitable, for your express user needs.
Below you will find our selection of the best free music facilities available. Each platform has been tested by our team of experts to ensure it offers exactly what you need, so you can embrace our buying advice.
Our opinion:
The most well-known free streaming service is also one of the most productive and, in fact, one of the most sociable. You’ll have to put up with tedious classified ads if you don’t want to pay and you’ll also have to pay attention to maximum playlists on shuffle instead of being able to decide which quick track you need to listen to at any given time, but there’s still a lot to enjoy: Sound quality decent, over a hundred million songs, offline support, tons of podcasts, arrival of new features. daily, and compatibility with the maximum of each and every device imaginable.
It’s not the easiest for a beginner to master, but once you get the hang of it, Spotify’s user interface is actually quite clever and actually gives you access to the platform’s wide variety of features without too much fuss. If you need to stream music for free, Spotify will most likely be your first choice. The sound quality is decent, although you have to pay more for a high-resolution service like Tidal, Apple Music, or Tidal if you’re concerned about sound quality.
By the way, if you need to pay, you’ll be charged from £11/$11/AU$13 for a popular Premium account, although there are other options available such as circle of family and student plans.
Read our full Spotify review
Our opinion:
You may not know it, but if you have Amazon Prime, you can access Amazon’s basic music streaming service right now. That’s right, but even with free one-day shipping and Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime entitles you to Amazon Music. , which gives you more than two million songs to stream on demand at no additional cost. And the most productive part? They don’t have advertising.
Unsurprisingly, the variety is quite popular and the sound quality will rarely blow your mind, but Prime consumers can’t complain. And if you’re not satisfied, you can upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited, which costs £10/$10 (or £9/$9 with Prime) per month and now includes HD, its high-resolution tier, at no extra charge. Matrix The quality of the free tier is good, but users who don’t have decent high-resolution support deserve to consider this HD tier to get the most out of their music.
It’s worth noting that there’s also a tier called Amazon Music Free that doesn’t require a Prime subscription but gives you access to music, podcasts, playlists, and select stations; You will have to deal with classified ads and lack of features. . offline playback.
Read our full Amazon Music review
Our opinion:
Deezer is thought to be the “other” service compared to the more classic quadruvirate of Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and Amazon Music, but that’s not necessarily an explanation for why you mindlessly forget about it. It’s not on par with its competitors lately, but it stands out as one of the first music streaming facilities on the market, as well as an early adopter of 360 Reality Audio.
Deezer’s flexible level means you have to go through classified ads and the song quality is only 128kbps. The mobile app at this point is also a little limited, but no more so than any of its competitors. However, when it comes to what to pay attention to, there are tons of possible selections (an impressive catalog of 90 million) and the design is pleasantly undeniable to browse. There are also plenty of podcasts and other non-music content to discover, making Deezer a wise choice for anyone looking beyond music.
The Deezer you think you know is probably not the service it offers today. Recently, the French platform has benefited from a major redesign and logo change, revamping the design and turning the logo’s identity with an ambitious purple color scheme and an all-new logo. . We haven’t had much time to play around with the new version, but early feedback from consumers and critics turns out to be positive, and we’re actually excited about the “Flow” endless playlist feature. Look at this area to learn about our new date review and timely printing.
If you sign up for Deezer Premium’s paid service, you’ll be able to enjoy 16-bit FLAC CD-quality audio, but you’ll have to pay £12 per month ($12) for a Premium plan account. If you don’t get paid, simply subscribe to Deezer Free to keep an eye out for classified ads and a slightly more limited service.
Read our full Deezer review
Our opinion:
Yes, it sounds like it, but YouTube is rarely just for videos. Launched in 2015, YouTube Music is the video-sharing site’s attempt to compete with Spotify et al. for the music streaming crown, and like Spotify, it also offers a flexible level. Sure, there are classified ads as you’d expect, but not as many as you’d expect on a platform that for a while has become the only reason some of us install ad blockers on our web browsers.
Extras, such as downloading for offline listening, are only paid for (non-students will pay around £12/AU$14/AU$15 per month), so you’re limited to streaming the variety of the service, but there’s an abundant catalog to choose from, the design is cool and clean, and its variety of music videos is, of course, unmatched.
We found that sound quality is hit or miss with our YouTube Music experience, but if you love music videos, this is a solution worth trying.
Read our full YouTube Music review
Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that there are two major omissions from this list: Tidal and Apple Music. As we note in our FAQ segment below, Tidal no longer offers a free tier in the UK or US, although you can get a 30-day free trial as a new member. Apple Music doesn’t have a free plan either, but you can get wonderful deals on the platform when you purchase other products made through Apple. New subscribers get six months free when purchasing an eligible HomePod, Beats, or AirPods, for example, and there’s a one-month free trial for new users, regardless of any outside purchases.
If you’re looking for something a little different, TuneIn Radio might be a little more suitable for you. It’s not a natural music streaming service – the focus is more on radio stations, so consider it a solution for your music, along with all the appeal that the classic radio format provides.
TuneIn offers a diversity of stations including BBC Radio, NPR, All India Radio, and C-SPAN, as well as news such as CNN and Fox News and a host of podcasts. There are even local and specialty radio stations to choose from, so there’s something for everyone.
For those willing to pay full price, TuneIn will offer (in addition to its free content) more than a hundred ,000 ad-free audiobooks, a comprehensive sports policy on the radio, and more than a hundred ad-free music stations. .
With a wide variety of radio applications, this is the most productive we’ve encountered of its kind.
BBC Sounds has replaced Beeb’s iPlayer Radio app, a move that is entirely justified. In addition to the same old BBC radio stations (Radio 1, Radio 4, 1Xtra, etc. ) that you can listen to live or on demand, it offers a mix of all kinds of podcasts, music mixes, live performances, and more. There are plenty of podcasts, exclusive content, even free audiobooks, not to mention curated playlists, TV soundtracks, and much more. History, comedy, science, sport; There is a huge diversity of high-quality content waiting to be discovered, available for free, and available to anyone, at any time.
You can search by gender, then download it and pay attention on the fly, while continuing to pay attention where you left off on some other device. The app has had some teething issues and will cause you problems, however, the platform as a whole has become a rich and resourceful enough house for the perfect BBC audio output. As the kids say, don’t sleep with BBC Sounds.
SoundCloud is known as the home of emerging artists, so if you need to check out new artists and are waiting for which bands will be successful, this is the best position to do so. Post Malone and Lizzo started their respective careers on SoundCloud, so you can take it however you see fit. The loose tier offers over 120 million tracks, mixes, podcasts and more, we can’t guarantee the quality of every one of them (that’s the challenge with “emerging” artists).
The smart thing is that you can connect with friends and even artists on the platform, create playlists, and get playlists of songs curated according to your tastes. The problem is that, like many free services, you have to make do with ads.
SoundCloud is more of a choice option, but evidently nothing prevents you from using it as a way to notice unconventional offers while using a more traditional service. Still, if you’re tired of the conventional, maybe it’s time to check out SoundCloud.
Most major music streaming facilities offer a flexible tier, with the exception of Tidal (unless you’re lucky enough to live in the US). Flexible installations inevitably come with classified ads and have more limited features. and audio quality that their facilities pay for. for stablemates, they are quite tempting.
Keep an eye out and you’ll find one-, two-, three-, or even six-month loose (or almost loose) deals on some paid tiers of streaming services, so you can see the sound products before you buy them. Remember when your trial starts and ends, as the maximum will automatically renew and convert to paid subscriptions once they end, rather than just ending automatically and leaving you where you started.
We recommend opting for higher quality streams (for which you’ll pay a fee), but if you’re just a casual listener (or on a very tight budget), free music streaming services also make more sense than paying. for something. You use it lightly.
We have verification services in London and Reading, where our team of experienced in-house examiners checks most of the audio-visual and hi-fi equipment that arrives at our doors.
Of course, when it comes to streaming facilities, a dedicated listening device is rarely very necessary, as only a computer or smartphone is needed. However, we made sure to check each streaming platform with a variety of speakers and headphones, and use them on iOS, Android, and desktop apps. What is vital in our evaluation procedure is that each service is compared with the most productive in its value and category. Which Hi-Fi system? It’s all about comparative verification, so we keep our winners close by to allow for unbiased comparisons between new installations and those we know have performed very well in the category.
We are independent and do our best to ensure we listen to each proposal to the best of our ability. So we will try many other types of music and give each service a long listening time. Of course, it’s not just about the sound quality. If a service has unique and notable features (including smart skills, maintaining playlists, or being able to tip your favorite artists), we’ll make sure some of our testing comes. to compare claims made through the platform.
All evaluation verdicts are agreed upon by the entire team, rather than an individual evaluator, to eliminate any non-public preference and ensure we are as thorough as possible. There is no input from PR firms or our sales team when it comes to verdicts. or star ratings in our reviews.
Yes, it is, for US users. U. S. Unfortunately, he abandoned it.
According to Tidal. com, as of April 10, users who were on Tidal’s free tier will need to upgrade to a paid subscription at $11 per month. This may not happen automatically, so if you’re playing Tidal for free in the United States United States, you may not face an unexpected bill in April. Instead, your access to Tidal will be suspended until you upgrade to a paid plan.
Speaking of which, there’s good news for Tidal fans. As part of a move to simplify its subscription tiers, Tidal won’t keep its spatial, lossless, high-resolution audio content locked in at £20/$20 per month on the “HiFi Plus” paywall. Instead, all of this will be included in an individual user plan that will be charged at £11/$11 per month. Student and family plans are still available at £5/$5 and £17/$17 per month, respectively.
So, can you still make Tidal for free? If you are a new user, you can enjoy a 30-day trial of any Tidal plan of your choice. Anyone who exhibits symptoms before April 10 will be charged the value of the selected package at the end of the test.
What you’re probably wondering after reading the article above is whether you deserve to stick with the combination and invest entirely in a paid edition of one of the above installations (or a service we haven’t indexed here, like Apple Music or Tide).
Without a doubt, the experience you will get with a paid subscription is particularly greater than with any free edition. Free Spotify might be great for a while, but many other people eventually get tired of the lack of classified ads intruding on their music. Each loose edition of each of the above platforms has limitations, whether it be classifieds, limited playback and customization, or the removal of features such as downloading classifieds and offline listening. Additionally, your chances of getting high-resolution single tracks are somewhat limited across the board.
Keep in mind, however, that the economy has been in a tough spot lately (haven’t you heard?), so costs are rising for peak streaming services. Free iterations may have some drawbacks, but significant monthly savings is a big plus.
In fact it is, yes. If you subscribe to Amazon Prime through a paid subscription, you will be able to access Amazon Music Prime at no additional cost. It is necessarily a light edition of Amazon Music Unlimited and, although there are no ads, it is only available in SD. quality instead of CD or high resolution and can only play by combining artists, albums or playlists. If you want to take it to the next level, choose Amazon Music Unlimited, which costs £9. 99/$9. 99/AU$9. 99 without an existing license. Prime subscription or £8. 99/$8. 99/AU$8. 99 with one.
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Harry McKerrell is editor of What Hi-Fi?. During his tenure at the publication, he wrote countless news articles, as well as articles, recommendations, and reviews of products ranging from floor speakers and music streamers to on-ear headphones, wireless headphones, and portable DACs. He has covered hi-fi and customer generation logo launches, as well as major industry events, such as IFA, High End Munich and, of course, the Bristol Hi-Fi Show. When he is not at work, he can be discovered playing hockey, practicing the piano, or watching unfamiliar dog puppies.
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