How To Get Free Music for iTunes
While Apple plans to discontinue iTunes during 2019, in the mean time you can still can use iTunes to listen to some good free music.
Free is most definitely the best price. If the music we get for iTunes is free and also legal, all the better. As iTunes is partly a delivery app to iPhones and iPads, you can load any music into it and load it onto your iDevice. iTunes does offer freebies but so do lots of other sites. This tutorial will show you some of the better ones.
You generally don’t get popular, chart or recently released tracks for free legally. If you have eclectic tastes, like a little variety, up and coming artists or some old-school tunes, there are lots of options.
The internet is full of free music and some of it is better than others. Some websites are definitely better than others too. All those featured here have been checked and downloads scanned for malware. Only ‘clean’ websites feature on TechJunkie!
Here are a few ways to get free music on iTunes to enjoy this iconic service while it’s still available. Since time is limited, get started on getting free music from iTunes soon!
iTunes
iTunes will often feature free music depending on where in the world you live. Unfortunately, the old Free Song of the Day has gone but there are still a lot of freebies on the iTune’s site. The offer isn’t universal though and is mainly in the US or Europe but if you live there, you should be able to get a few tracks and perhaps even albums from up and coming artists for free on the platform. Check here for free songs.
YouTube
While technically against the T&Cs, you can download from YouTube easily and fill iTunes with new stuff every day. There are lots of ways to download music from YouTube but I tend to use Savefrom.net. The site is clean, works quickly and downloads your music in a variety of formats depending on the source file.
YouTube is taking down lots of these downloader websites and some of the remaining ones can contain malware. The one above does not and it still works well. Also be aware that you may be breaching copyright so download carefully.
Amazon
Amazon also offers free music that you can load into iTunes. They are hidden away and are usually from artists you have never heard of or up and comers but there is a lot to choose from.
If you like exploring new music then this is definitely somewhere to come. There is a free songs page and a free albums page. Both contain a good number of freebies.
Free Music Archive
The Free Music Archive features on a lot of my free music lists and for good reason. It deserves our support and has a huge range of music for all tastes.
It has retained its Free Song of the Day feature too which is another positive for the site. The entire website is made up of free stuff so you can browse to your heart’s content and download whatever you like. Consider donating though as they do need to keep the lights on!
The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit library containing literally millions of songs, many of them live concert recordings. The Internet archive also contains free software, free books, and other free content. The administrators are careful to exclude content that’s not legal to provide to the public for free.
As of June, 2019, the Internet Archive has over 4.5 million audio recordings, including over 180,000 live concerts.
Since it’s easy to download mp3 files from the Interent archive, you can easily import these files into iTunes.
Last.fm
Last.fm offers freebies that you can use with iTunes. This page over on their website has a bunch of tracks covering all genres spread over lots of pages. You can preview before downloading or just go for it and download the lot. It is entirely up to you. While Last.fm is now a register service, you can download any of these tracks without having to register or pay anything.
Jamendo
Jamendo is a free music service that offers free streaming or downloads. You do need to register for an account in order to download anything but it’s free and takes only a minute. Unfortunately, it hides this fact instead of being straight about it. Regardless of that annoyance, once registered and logged in, you can download or stream as much music as you like.
Noisetrade
Noisetrade is a new one for me and was suggested by someone I asked about free music sources. It’s a large site full of up and coming artists who offer their stuff for free. There are lots to choose from and all are new or up and coming. You won’t recognize many of the artists on here, not yet anyway but the depth and breadth of the music available makes it well worth checking out.
SoundClick
SoundClick is another new one for me that was suggested while canvassing for free music for iTunes. It’s a bit like Noisetrade and features up and coming and independent artists. There are all the usual genres and a wide selection of artists within each. There are thousands of tracks on here and you don’t have to register to play the track. Not all tracks are downloadable though. Some can only be played from the site so watch out for that.
If you liked this article about iTunes, you might also enjoy Apple Music vs. Spotify: A Comprehensive Review & Comparison.
What service are you going to use once Apple discontinues iTunes in 2019? Please leave a comment below.