The Best Free Music Download Apps for Android and iOS

These apps allow you to download songs (if they carry those tunes) for free. However, you should remember that just because something's available as a free music download, this does not equate to it being legal as the owner of the song might not have given permission to the site to do so.

There are tons of free downloadable music content on pirate sites that are guaranteed to be illegal, so ensure that you have Creative Commons or Copyleft permission before downloading any MP3s.

Table of contents:

• Audials Play: Perfect for radio recording
• SoundCloud: Best for quality and quantity
• SoundLoader: Fast and easy downloads
• Palco: A very niche app
• Jamendo Music: Ad-free downloads and offline playback
• Anghami: Best for Arabic audio
• Hungama: For Bollywood fans

Download your favorite music for free with these apps

Audials Play: Perfect for radio recording

Audials Play is one of the best ways for anyone to download music for free on an Android device, but it takes an unconventional approach. While you can download tons of music with the app, all of the music will be sourced from the radio itself. Clearly an out-of-the-box solution, don't you think so?

Audials Play offers a total of 100,000 radio stations in MP3 and AAC format, in addition to 260,000 podcasts that are sorted by country and genre. Audials Play can record whole broadcasts on-demand or save the stream with automatic song separation. You will be able to play the music or broadcast again at a later time, even when offline.

There are no ads and in-app purchases to suffer from, and it also does not display any banner ads in the app. While it does not play commercials, there are some broadcasters who earn some money by playing radio advertising, so that is something to take note of. 

The user interface is simple enough that with a couple of taps on the menu and you can begin recording. This comprehensive, well-designed app boasts discovery features, EQ controls, and Chromecast support to boot. What's more, Audials Play allows you to schedule recordings ahead of time, letting you nab those tunes in advance. 

• You can download the Audials Play app from Google Play Store and Apple App Store

SoundCloud: Best for quality and quantity

SoundCloud is one of the best free music apps if you are more than happy to settle for lesser-known hits, as the app is popular with independent or more obscure artists who upload their tracks here so that anyone can play them for free. In addition, many tracks here are also available for download.

Touted as the world's largest music and audio streaming platform, it has more than 200 million songs while offering a wide range of genres that cannot be found elsewhere, such as DJ sets, hand-curated playlists, remixes, and freestyles—apart from chart-topping albums and mainstream releases.

The free version mainly offers independent artists and is perfect for music enthusiasts to discover new tunes or a new artist, or perhaps be part of an emerging genre. Popular artists will most probably put their songs up here behind a paywall, so don't be disappointed if your favorite artist does that!

• You can download the SoundCloud app from Google Play Store and Apple App Store

SoundLoader: Quick and easy downloading

SoundLoader is an interesting addition to this list because doing so is easy. In fact, it takes just three steps to store your favorite tune on your handset. Just copy the song's URL from SoundCloud, launch SoundLoader, paste the link in the dialog box, and tap Download. That's it!

There are no irritating pop-up ads to contend with, either. This app allows you to make a backup of your favorite songs in a jiffy. Do take note that it is your responsibility as the user to gain permission from the content creator before republishing, redistributing, or reusing downloaded audio.

• You can download the SoundLoader app from Google Play Store and Apple App Store

Palco MP3: A very niche app

Palco MP3 is a free platform for independent Brazilian artists who want to share their talent with the rest of the world. Currently, there are more than 1.4 million songs from over 126,000 artists spread across 60 genres to get your booty moving. I understand that this is a very niche market, but anyone who wants to try something that is different from your everyday tunes would do well to give this a go.

This app allows you to stream radio stations, curate playlists of your favorite tunes, and download songs to your smartphone for offline listening. Whether you're looking to rock to some samba, bossa nova, hip-hop, or electronica, Palco has it covered. So dive in and discover what Brazil has to offer.

• You can download the Palco MP3 app from Google Play Store and Apple App Store

Jamendo Music: Ad-free downloads and offline playback

Jamendo Music allows you to listen to and, more importantly, download over 600,000 tracks without having to fork out a cent. What's remarkable about this app is the fact that there are no nasty advertisements that get in your way. Whoever said that there is no such thing as a free lunch? A gem pops up once in a blue moon.

In order to use this app, you will first need to sign up for an account. Once you have done that, you can play any song at any time of your convenience without any interruptions. The interface is simple and easy to use, with Jamendo attracting a community of more than 3,500,000 users already—and the number continues to grow daily! They also offer royalty-free music for commercial use, now how about that for content creators?

• You can download the Jamendo Music app from the Apple App Store

Anghami: Best for Arabic audio

Fancy some Arabic or African music? Anghami targets users from the MENA region (Middle East & North Africa) and offers a very similar service to Google Play Music. For those of us who don't live there, it's an excellent source of free Arabic and North African tunes.

The free service isn't unlimited, and you will experience some ads, but that's worth the entry price if you want to be more cultured and discover new music from a different continent.

• You can download the Anghami app from Google Play Store and Apple App Store

Hungama Music: Best for Bollywood fans

If you're a fan of Indian music of different genres, Hungama got you covered. This app has a huge database of songs (15 million and counting) including Bollywood numbers, and songs in Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, and Telugu, among others.

Not only that, but it also has videos that can be downloaded and viewed using the integrated player. When you use the app for the first time, you'll get a certain amount of free downloads for free, so select your favorites carefully before considering whether you want to pay for anything more.

You can download the Hungama Music app from Google Play Store and Apple App Store

Note from the editor: In a previous version of this list, Google Play Music was nominated as the best option for Android fans. However, as the service has been discontinued by Google, which now uses YouTube Music, we have removed that option from the list.

What’s your favorite app for free music downloads on Android? Please let us know in the comments.

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This article was updated in May 2023 with updated picks and screenshots. Comments before the date were preserved and may be related to past versions.