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Free music streaming
Updated 1 August 2023
With music streaming services you can listen to the latest and greatest hits whenever and wherever. By putting up with a few ads or making use of free trials, you can do so without paying a penny. Here's our round-up of the best music streaming services that let you listen for free.
What is music streaming?
Streaming lets you listen to your favourite tracks and albums instantly. Its main boon is you get instant access to huge catalogues of music, without having hundreds of CDs cluttering up your house or thousands of MP3s filling up the memory of your devices.
These services are legal and above board, but on free services the music is often interrupted every now and then with an advert you can't skip. It can also be difficult to find the exact songs you want to hear, so free streaming services aren't for everyone.
There are two ways to access music online:
Streaming. Here you play tracks while you're online and every time you listen you're effectively 're-downloading' the track (unless you're on a plan with 'offline listening' where you can download tracks to listen to later). You'll only have access while logged in to your profile with the service (though many are free to use).
- Paid downloading. Here you download the songs you want to listen to. Once you've paid for a track or album, it's yours to keep and listen to for as long as you like, and you can listen offline as well as online.
This can be costly, especially if you're paying to download a whole album of songs, or you're paying for several albums.
Quick questions
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Top free online music services
Here are a few music streaming providers with free versions worth considering. These all offer a completely free service you can use on an ongoing basis, though some such as Spotify also offer limited free trials of their paid-for service.
Probably the biggest name in online music, the Spotify streaming service has over 500 million users around the world and over 100 million available tracks. While 200 million worldwide use the paid version (see below), it also offers free streaming with ads.
You can listen for free on smartphones and tablets via the Spotify app, but you can only listen on shuffle (you can skip six times per hour) and you must be online.
Amazon Music Free provides free access to top playlists and thousands of stations, but includes ads. On Android and iOS, you can listen to selected songs from pre-made playlists on demand, but unlike Spotify Free you can't make your own.
If you have Amazon Prime, you'll be redirected to its Amazon Music Prime selection, which is included with your Prime subscription and has more features.
On the scene since 2006, Deezer is one of the older music-streaming sites, with around 16 million active monthly users. It's a fully-fledged free service supported by ads.
As with Spotify, free users can only listen in shuffle mode and have to be online, but unlike with Spotify you can't skip tracks at all unless you're willing to fork out for the privilege.
There are over 200 million tracks on SoundCloud, and this continues to grow because of its scale and easy uploading – it was launched as a platform for sharing music between artists.
Its popularity with consumers quickly led it to develop into a full publishing tool for musicians to distribute their tracks to the public, and it now boasts 175 million listeners a month.
Jango is an online radio service rather than an on-demand streaming service. You can't listen to particular artists or songs as and when, but you can listen to radio 'stations' by artist or genre.
You don't have to register. Just type in an artist or genre, select a result and the station will start playing right away. For example, type in 'Adele', select 'Adele Radio' and it will play similar artists to Adele, such as Carly Rae Jepsen and Tove Lo, as well as Adele herself.
Top paid-for music services, with free trials
If the free services above aren't right for you, the following music streaming services have paid options, but offer free trials for newbies. It's handy for sampling what's on offer before deciding whether you want to stump up the cash.
Over 100 million tracks, packed with features
SPOTIFY PREMIUM
The Spotify Premium streaming service has over 200 million paying users around the world and over 100 million available tracks.
It also offers free streaming with ads on smartphones and tablets via the Spotify app, but you can only listen on shuffle (you can skip six times per hour) and you must be online.
If you pay to upgrade to Premium you can listen ad-free, play any song or album on-demand, and download and listen to music offline. It has a 30-day free trial for all, or you can get it extended to three months if you sign up via PayPal by 15 September.
Looking to cut the cost of Spotify? See our Spotify MoneySaving Tips.
100 million songs – share with family to slash the cost
AMAZON MUSIC UNLIMITED*
The online retail giant's answer to the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited* is ad-free and lets you listen offline. As with Spotify, there is an ad-supported free version (see above).
Anyone can get it on a free 30 day trial (sometimes Prime members are offered longer). After that, the standard price is £10.99/month or £8.99/month if you've Prime, though you can choose between a few different plans.
100 million tracks, plus live radio stations hosted by well-known artists
APPLE MUSIC*
There's no free ad-supported version of Apple's music streaming service, but those new to Apple Music can get a free three-month trial until Monday 21 August when signing up on an iPhone, iPad or Mac.
You can get a free six-month trial with the purchase of selected products such as Airpods.
You'll get all the features of paid membership for the duration of the trial, including access to the library of 100 million songs. The paid version is £10.99/month if you don't cancel before the trial ends.
Over 100 million tracks, plus cloud storage for your existing songs and albums
YOUTUBE MUSIC
Launched by Google in 2015, YouTube Music has now replaced the search engine's previous music service, Google Play Music, which was shut down in 2020.
While there is a free, ad-supported version of YouTube Music that even lets you listen on-demand, it doesn't let you listen without loading a video and, on smartphones and tablets, only lets you listen if you keep YouTube Music on-screen and your screen unlocked. Because of that, we haven't included it in our top free online music services.
It costs £10.99/month to subscribe to YouTube Music Premium, but much like its rivals it lets newbies try it for free (you need to have or create a free Google account to use it) before having to pay.
Those on the free 30-day trial will get the same as paying members – on-demand access to its library of music ad-free, background and locked-screen listening on smartphones and tablets, offline listening and audio-only listening.
How to complain about a provider
If you're not happy about the service you receive from an online music service, you should contact the company first. And if you're still not satisfied after doing that, escalate your complaint to the relevant ombudsman or trade body – for full help, see our Consumer Rights guide.
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