Top 10 MP3 Download Sites
Even if streaming offers are booming – for many of us it is still best to have the music we want “offline” as an MP3 in our own library. You don’t even have to resort to the often illegal content of P2P file-sharing sites to build up an impressive MP3 collection – the web is teeming with legal websites where you can download masses of music for free. In the following we present them to you top ten free music download sources from the net.
You can also find the 5 best websites for free MP3 downloads in our video:
Contents
1. Download and listen to music for free at last.fm
last.fm is probably the largest music database in the world. Hundreds of thousands of users have their music taste logged via the social network and receive music tips, personalized radio stations and song snippets from last.fm to listen to. Many artists also release their music or individual songs for complete download as MP3 via last.fm. The provider lists all downloadable songs on its own subpage. Music genres can be narrowed down on the left-hand side, registered users even get download recommendations based on their taste in music.
2. jamendo.com
jamendo.com is a portal for royalty-free music. Many artists do not feel represented by the music industry and release their music for free use, distribution and processing under the so-called Creative Commons licenses. That doesn’t mean this music is any worse – it’s simply less well known due to the music industry’s lack of marketing power. At jamendo you will find a gigantic archive with free music that you can either listen to as a stream and via radio stations or, in most cases, download it directly – a login is required for this. There shouldn’t be a style of music that jamendo doesn’t cover. Content creators can also license music inexpensively on jamendo.
3. Soundcloud
After the demise of MySpace, there was nothing for a long time (apart from Facebook) – but in the meantime there is also Soundcloud next to Bandcamp (see below). The Swedish-Berlin startup has developed into one of the most important platforms for musicians – anyone can upload tracks, embed them somewhere else, sell them or make them available for free. Unfortunately, there isn’t a direct search for the free songs, but there are also ones under the tag “free”. Hundreds of free downloads to find. Look for the “Download” or “Free Download” button under each track – including Avicii, various remixes by big names and original material, page by page to browse through.
4. Bandcamp
Similar to Soundcloud, Bandcamp doesn’t have a real search for free tracks either – but under the Keyword “Free download” means heaps of free tracks (often set as “Name your Price”, where you can also enter 0). Bandcamp is a platform for musicians to sell their music directly, with no record labels or distributors, so it’s mostly indie and independent artists – but there’s plenty to explore here too.
5.Amazon
The online shopping giant also has ongoing, at least on its US site changing free MP3s in the program. However, you need an Amazon account to download the free MP3s. If you have one, it might be worth stopping by from time to time.
6. Reverb Nation
Much like MySpace should reverb nation Help young bands to become better known. But in contrast to the former, the portal is still successful today and lots of young bands offer their songs as free MP3 downloads to increase their popularity. Reason enough to stop by, because ReverbNation has something for every musical taste, from pop to indie, electronica and hip-hop.
7. Archive.org
The Internet Archive, which also stored old versions of the World Wide Web in the Wayback Machine, contains various music collections that are licensed under public domain or creative commons. For one, there is Live audio archives, which contains over 95,000 bootlegs, i.e. live recordings of well-known and lesser-known bands. On the other hand there is in the rubric net labels 20,000+ tracks by Creative Commons artists released on netlabels – from electronic to indie. A very good source for GEMA-free music.
8. Tonspion.de
Many artists only offer their music on their own homepage or somewhere else on the net. The editors of Tonspion.de has been collecting these tracks for 10 years now, giving tips on exactly how to download the free songs, writing reviews of the songs and involving users. Every registered user can rate the songs and add comments, save favorite artists and receive download recommendations based on their own taste in music. This makes tonspion.de the best-known and largest address in Germany for an archive of free MP3 downloads that is edited by the editors.
9. Hypemachine
hypemachine is an aggregator of (mostly English-language) music blogs that write about new songs, so it shows which tracks are hot and hot right now. The search function allows you to retrieve a large number of artists, only the navigation is sometimes a bit confusing, when to stay on the Hypemachine page and when to go to the respective blog (click on the sentence at the end: “Posted xx minutes ago.. .”!). But be careful, not all songs in this treasure trove can be downloaded, many are only available online to listen to – you have to dig around a bit in this hype machine.
10. Free Music Archives
The Free Music Archives lists thousands of tracks under Creative Commons license – a huge grab bag across all genres. You’ve heard of very few artists, but that doesn’t have to mean anything in terms of quality. The whole thing is supported by a few US radio stations that feed the free content of their programs here.
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