Music — the word is enough to make a person happy-go-lucky. Admit it; music relieves stress better than anything else, which explains why people spend countless hours plugged in and enjoying their favorite tracks. The fact also worth noting is that most of them prefer listening on their phones, thanks to listening to songs on the go.
While your choice of music could be subjective, we think that all, or at least most of us, prefer free music apps that let us download songs and enjoy them offline too. We, too, have the same taste as yours and thus are here with our specially curated list of free music apps for Android. Find out more in this article.
Best Free Music Apps to Listen to Music (2021)
1. Fildo
Fildo is one such app that might get most of the people’s jobs done. It neither has a fascinating interface nor it has a quirky feature; nothing. However, its simple yet straightforward way of letting you download and play songs is what makes it fit for most. While this app’s Play Store version is just an ordinary MP3 player, our version of concern is only available on Fildo’s website.
The app greets you with a beautiful nightlife background, which goes well with the album covers of the songs. Fildo lets you import your Spotify and NetEase playlists too, so if you were afraid of losing your custom-prepared playlist, you don’t have to. The interface, as said earlier, isn’t consistent to our liking. Like, you can see a differently designed media player, dialogue box, and interface all at once. There are a few unwelcoming bugs here and there.
You’ll have to be a particular kind of person to be able to notice it, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue. Nevertheless, all the essential requisites, like creating a playlist, searching and downloading songs, lyrics support, playing songs from your device, background playback, top artists, top charts, etc., are all there. So, if you aren’t looking out for ornate-looking free music apps or distinct features, Fildo is an easy recommendation.
2. YMusic
No, it’s not Youtube Music, but deep down, it can become one. To explain in simple words, it looks like YouTube but keeps music first and everything else second. No matter what, the app is visually inviting while having many features to tweak and enjoy. The cherry on top is that you can even playback non-music videos from YouTube and download them too.
The developer has almost mimicked YouTube’s design language, and thus, you can trick someone into thinking it’s YouTube. By default, the app showcases a collection of videos from YouTube itself. Upon opening, the interface transforms into a music player and plays that video in an audio-only format. However, one can choose to watch the video too, set playback speed, view comments, just like YouTube.
Apart from the silk-smooth animations, YMusic also lets you sign in to YouTube and YouTube Music. Once signed in, you have YouTube or YouTube Music in all their glory. The app is highly customizable, offers granular control, background playback, and an in-built equalizer. The app isn’t music-only primarily, but if you adjust it accordingly, it can reconstruct into one of the best free music apps you’ll ever witness.
3. SoundCloud
SoundCloud, as heavenly as the name sounds, is a work of art. The app’s design is crazy good; however, there’s a bitter elephant in the room which we’ll get to soon. SoundCloud is particularly friendly for budding artists, as one can publish their creations for others to listen and appreciate. While many salient features like song downloading and higher-quality playback require upgrading, the free version is more than sufficient.
The app will initially bring a smile to your face, but the illusion immediately breaks when you notice that many songs, or at least most of us that we searched, aren’t available in our country. Using a VPN can tackle this situation, but come on, who’ll keep jumping between servers to listen to music? The app has a comparatively rich library of songs, so it is unlikely for you not to find your track of choice. Furthermore, you can follow your favorite artist too.
SoundCloud also shows top charts worldwide, lets you create your playlist, bombards you with far fewer advertisements, and more in the free version itself. The app adapts to your listening and recommends you accordingly. SoundCloud is also one of the best mediums for an emerging creator to gain popularity. Considering its kick-ass interface and collection of music, you’ll happily want to blend in and relish it.
4. Spotify
Of course, we had to include it. Spotify is the best god-damn music app one can get, even if it demands you to shell off some cash. It has an award-worthy recommendation system, a massive songs library, and a beyond-comparable app layout. Everything is just impeccable, and we aren’t commending Spotify needlessly; wait till you know why.
At this point, it has almost become obligatory for most of the songs to be present on Spotify, and thus, you can hardly question the vastness of Spotify’s reach. If you care about cross-platform syncing, Spotify handles it magically, and you can switch between them with a single click. Provided you get its premium membership, which is worth every penny, you get to listen to ad-free music, download songs, and upgrade your audio quality too.
Sure enough, the ads, especially those annoying unskippable audio adverts, will get on your veins someday. Additionally, Spotify has a brilliant assemblage of podcasts, which are on the rise currently. You can create public/private playlists, follow artists, view lyrics, and whatnot. Spotify indeed is a masterpiece and one of a kind; so, if you have to install just one music app, it should be Spotify and nothing else.
5. NewPipe
NewPipe is just another alternative to the YMusic app mentioned before. While it doesn’t focus on music as intensely as YMusic did, you’ll be surprised to see how thoughtful the app is. Apart from being a YouTube alternative in the first place, NewPipe can certainly satisfy those longing for features like downloading songs in both audio-only and video format, background playback, and more while charging absolutely nothing.
The app opens a YouTube-like interface upfront, but on the starting page itself, you can find a dedicated section for your bookmarked playlists and subscriptions. Besides, it has now gained support for various platforms like Media CCC, FramaTube, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud. NewPipe lets you import your YouTube and SoundCloud subscriptions, and that too without requiring you to sign in.
The app has splendid animations, but you can’t use the same adjective for its customizability. We referred NewPipe as thoughtful because of clever features that make the user’s experience a ton better. For example, the app lets you switch to an audio-only background mode or picture-in-picture mode with just a single click. On top of all, NewPipe is ad-free and deserves every bit of praise, which explains why we’ve kept it on our list of free music apps.
6. SONGily
If you wish to download an app that pivots on two and only two things, i.e., listen to songs and download them, then SONGily is the way forward. Presumably, the app might feel too lifeless for some people but is a child’s play to operate. Its no-nonsense approach of searching for songs and either listening or downloading them is what spoke to us, and as a result, SONGily is on our list of free music apps.
Since SONGily keeps things effortless and uncomplicated, we, too, will present it in the same way. After installing it, the app’s recommendation varies on what country you choose from India, the United States, and Egypt. It’s not very likely for your searched song to be not on SONGily, and that’s an excellent thing to accomplish. The app is a little rough, but its design is simple and relatively ad-free. That’s all, folks.
7. TubeMate
Have you ever felt the need to download media from a website but couldn’t find a way of doing it? Worry not; TubeMate equips you to do so. Besides, it also allows you to consume content within the app, so if you wish to have an all-in-one version of the many apps you use, TubeMute will undeniably serve you. It certainly is a worthy mention on our list of free music apps.
Upon opening and swiping to the right, the app showcases N number of platforms, including YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, and even TikTok (it won’t open here in India, however). TubeMate is capable of running so many apps because it runs them in their web versions. While some apps require you to sign in first, many don’t. And due to some bizarre issue, downloading media from Twitter requires you to leave TubeMate with the Twitter page open and return after 3 minutes.
Nevertheless, the app works as intended, and if we talk about downloading songs from YouTube, it even lets you choose from resolutions like MP4, MP3, M4A, WEBM, etc. Disgracefully, it neither supports background playback nor is it ad-free. We know some people require installing media from numerous websites, so if you ever felt the urge, TubeMate is just right for you.
8. AudioMack
Let’s make this clear from the very beginning, AudioMack is hands down one of the most stunning free music apps we’ve come across. That said, it creates sort of a YouTube-like ecosystem where audiophiles can follow each other and other artists, comment below and re-up songs (knock-off version of retweet). Nonetheless, AudioMack is among the most feature-rich free music apps too.
Sorry for the repetition; the app is a visual beauty, and it instantly reflects as soon as you open it. You need to create a free account to download songs, which aren’t unlimited, by the way. Needless to say, AudioMack, too, attracts you to upgrade to premium, which grants you benefits like unlocking all lyrics, higher-quality streaming, ad-free listening, equalizer adjustments, unlimited downloads, sleep timer, and downloading playlists.
AudioMack, however, needs to level up its library a bit, as a few songs that we searched didn’t come up, but most of them did. The app even lets you link your social media handles to share your chosen song right away. You get all vital features like creating a playlist, background playback, a tailored recommendation feed, and top charts around the globe and in your country. Although it isn’t neck-to-neck with Spotify, it indeed comes a close second overall.
9. Shazam
Its purpose might be different from all other free music apps, but Shazam is indeed a faithful companion for every audiophile out there. Think of this — have you ever been into a situation where you find the music mesmerizing but don’t know its name? What sucks, even more, is that you couldn’t listen to the complete song or save it to your playlist, and here’s where Shazam comes into play and saves the day.
Shazam grants you this superpower and recognizes the song after listening to it for a couple of seconds. Be it a mere tune with no lyrics, a remix of a popular song, or even a track in some random language; Shazam works flawlessly 10 out of 10 times. All you need to do is tap the Shazam button in the app or add a dedicated button in your notification panel and let the app do its job, as shown below.
If you link your Spotify or Apple Music account, Shazam will automatically add that song to a playlist named “My Shazam Tracks” (If you noticed it in the picture for Spotify above). The app, too, appealingly displays your Shazamed tracks, charts around the world, and specially curated playlists based on your searches. No, you can’t listen to the entire song from there itself, but it can redirect you to Spotify or Apple Music instantly. This nifty tool thus earns a place on our list of free music apps.
Conclusion: Listen to Music With These Free Music Apps
So, there you go! Music undoubtedly is everyone’s friend, and we believe our collection created a cementing bond between you two. While Spotify will be our go-to choice, you can’t go wrong with AudioMack or SoundCloud either. No doubt, the rest of the apps are fantastic too, but the podium finishers certainly are Spotify, AudioMack, and SoundCloud. Shazam is a must-have aid for every listener.
Thanks a lot for reading our article on free music apps, and we’re obliged to have you till the end. Feel free to drop down your comments, feedback, or suggestions.