There are a lot of music and audio apps available for Android as well as iPhone users in their respective app stores. From lyrics support to online streaming these apps are for every type of user. However, the only tricky part is deciding which app to choose from all these apps. To help you with this we have compiled a list of the best music apps to help you sing along.
Best Free Music Apps
1. Spotify
Spotify is one of the largest and arguably the best music streaming service around and certainly one of the most sociable. The app provides a free, ad-supported service with some limitations or Spotify Premium for on-demand streaming and offline listening.
Spotify’s biggest advantages are its support for custom, shareable playlists, which can be easily embedded into websites and social media posts all over the internet, and its popularity amongst artists, who often release albums either first or exclusively on Spotify. If you want free music streaming, Spotify will probably be your first port of call.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quality of free tier: Up to 160kbps
Library size: 82 million+
Platforms: iOS and Android apps, Desktop app, Web player, Smart TV apps, Connected speaker support, Cars.
PROS
- Plenty of ways to find new music
- Easy to use
- Works on lots of platforms
CONS
- No lossless audio
2. Deezer
Deezer is a personal music player which lets you stream tracks from thousands of artists. Like Spotify, Deezer lets you stream music and podcasts, download MP3 tracks to listen offline, create playlists and listen to radio stations. Deezer also has a feature called Flow, which provides a never-ending personalised radio of tracks based on your tastes.
With Deezer’s free tier you have to suffer ads, and the track quality is only 128kbps. The mobile app for this tier is also a little limited. However, when it comes to what to listen to, there is a massive choice and the layout is pleasingly simple to navigate. Further, if you do sign-up for the full service, you can enjoy CD-quality(not hi-res) audio, too.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quality of free tier: Up to 128kbps
Library size: 90 million+
Platforms: iOS and Android apps, Desktop app, Web player
PROS
- Plenty of music
- Easy to use
- Good podcasts
CONS
- No hi-res audio
3. YouTube Music
Launched back in 2015, YouTube Music allows you to listen to a massive variety of music, with a choice of turning music videos on or off depending on your mood. Like Spotify, it offers a free tier. Sure, there are adverts, as you would expect, but not as many as you might fear.
Additional features such as downloading for offline listening are pay-only, so you’re limited to streaming the service’s selection, but there’s a considerable catalog to choose from, and the layout is nice and clean. You can also sign up for a 30-day free trial.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quality of free tier: Up to 128kbps
Library size: 90 million+
Platforms: iOS and Android apps, Web player
PROS
- Uncluttered
- Easy to use
- Huge Library
CONS
- Iffy sound quality
4. SoundCloud
SoundCloud is arguably the largest platform for fans to check out. The mobile app and music-sharing website enable its users to upload, promote, and share audio, as well as a digital signal processor allowing listeners to stream audio. While its competitors report having roughly 70 million tracks in their systems, SoundCloud has over 300 million.
Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud has grown to be one of the largest music streaming services in the world and is available in 190 countries and territories. SoundCloud offers both free and paid memberships.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quality of free tier: Up to 320kbps
Library size: 125 million+
Platforms: iOS and Android apps, Web player
PROS
- High-Quality Audio
- Great UI
- Huge Library
CONS
- Free users only get 15 million tracks
- Annoying pop-ups
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5. iHeartRadio
iHeartRadio is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. This internet radio app offers thousands of radio stations from around the world, covering genres such as music, sports, talkback and comedy, as well as countless popular podcasts, with the ability to create your own personalized stations with your favorite content.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quality of free tier: Up to 128kbps
Library size: 50 million+
Platforms: iOS and Android apps, Web player
PROS
- Best Podcast Library
- Simple UI
CONS
- Small Library than others
6. Tidal
US customers can now gain access to the service’s first-ever free plan, called ‘Tidal Free’, which offers streams of the complete library of 80 million tracks at 160kbps with “limited interruptions”.
The ‘Tidal Premium’ tier (£9.99, $9.99, AU$11.99 per month) that offered 320kbps quality has now been rebranded as ‘Tidal HiFi’ and gets you audio at up to 1411 kbps, as well as offline capabilities and access to features such as Tidal Connect, for that same monthly price.
The top tier, ‘Tidal HiFi’ is now known as ‘Tidal HiFi Plus’ and remains £19.99 ($19.99, AU$23.99) per month. It brings audio quality up to 9216 kbps (i.e. hi-res) by supporting Tidal Masters via Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) technology. It is also the tier you have to subscribe to in order to listen to immersive music in Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Audio.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quality of free tier: Up to 160kbps
Library size: 80 million+
Platforms: iOS and Android apps, Web player, Apple and Android TV apps, Apple CarPlay, Roon, Tidal Connect
PROS
- Great sound quality
- Great UI
- Hi-res Tidal Masters
CONS
- Hi-res tier undercut by Amazon, Apple
