From iPhoneLoyals, we want to show you How to Download Free Music on iPhone for Offline Listening. To perform this Digital Download of any Song in MP3 format (you can filter it, for example, by music genre), Podcast or any Internet File, it can be through Applications or web pages that we will now explain.
How To Download/Free and Easy Music For Cell Phone
Before we go ahead and explain, in practice, how to download free music on iPhone, let me give you more information about the concept of "free".
On the Net there are numerous applications and websites that allow you to download music in MP3 format to listen to it later, even without an active Internet connection, but not all systems are legal: in fact, to avoid problems, you have to pay close attention not to download copyrighted material, because this practice, in addition to harming the artists, also represents a crime punishable by law.
Therefore, it is advisable to rely only on portals and applications that allow you to download music that is not protected by copyright, freely distributed and/or with a Creative Commons license (which makes it suitable for use for personal and non-profit purposes).
The subject of this guide will be, precisely, to explain you how to get music to listen to in the absence of the Internet in a perfectly legal way, through portals that distribute non-copyrighted material or applications legally authorized to broadcast copyrighted music.
Download Free Music Direct to Cell Phone
Sites to download free music on iPhone
Unfortunately, there are currently not many applications that allow you to download music to iPhone 100% free and 100% legal. However, there are numerous Internet sites that make music available in MPXNUMX format, freely distributed or no longer protected by copyright.
Songs downloaded in this way can be played using a special player, such as the one included in Documents by Readdle, an excellent free file manager for iOS/iPadOS that among its many functions also includes a browser and a media player, useful for downloading and then listening offline to songs taken from the Internet.
After downloading the app in question (follow the link I gave you a moment ago, open the App Store, tap the Get button and authenticate yourself via Face ID, Touch ID or Apple ID password), open it and answer affirmatively to the screens that are proposed to you, to grant the necessary permissions.
Once you have reached the main Documents by Readdle screen, tap the (+) button located at the bottom right, tap the New folder icon, assign a name to the folder that will contain the downloaded songs (e.g. Music) and tap the end button, to confirm.
Now access the folder in question, tap the (+) button and select the folder or the path containing the songs to import, from theImport from panel (e.g. File); to add a song to the folder, tap its icon.
To launch the Documents by Readdle music player, tap a song of your choice and, to activate the extended view, swipe upwards, starting from the player thumbnail. Use the Reader card to define the playback flow of the songs in the folder, or the library tab, to organize them into useful playlists as well.
And now, I just have to show you some of the sites you can use to get free and legal music! To download music you can use Safari (in this case it will find the files in the Download iPhone folder) or any other browser.
Jamendo
Jamendo is a great site for anyone looking for music produced by emerging artists who have decided to distribute their works online for free. It includes music of any genre to download for free for personal purposes (for commercial purposes you need to subscribe to a paid plan, Jamendo Licensing, which offers the service).
The download process is very simple, but requires registration for a free account. Search for the song of your interest by browsing thegenre or songs available on the home page, click on the correspondingarrow icon and tap the FREE DOWNLOAD FOR PERSONAL USE MP3 QUALITY button.
At this point, press the button to create an account and fill out the proposed form, in order to register. Once registration is complete, repeat the above procedure and log in. You will then be able to download Jamendo offline songs to your iPhone (please note that some of them are distributed in OGG format and not MP3).
Download MP3 Music
Free Music Archive
Free Music Archive is a well-known website that hosts a large number of songs in MP3 format, freely and legally downloadable for non-commercial purposes, freely available from the respective authors or no longer protected by copyright. To use it, connect to the freemusicarchive.org website and tap the Search FMA button, to start a new search.
Now, type the title of the song of your interest inSearch and tap themagnifying glass, immediately next to it, to start searching for songs; alternatively, you can choose to view available songs by category, using theGenres,For Musicians andFor Filmmakers... options.... that reside at the top.
At the end of the search, find the song of your interest among those proposed and, to listen to it directly from the site, tap on thePlay symbol, located to the left of the name; if, instead, you want to download it on the iPhone to listen to it later, tap on thedown arrow symbol and, if necessary, tap also on theI understand and agree option, located in the next window. To start downloading the song, tap thedownload button that, at this point, should appear on the screen.
Archive.org
Archive.org is an excellent website from which to find hundreds and hundreds of free songs: although it is not really a portal dedicated to MP3, its goal is to make available to all cultural content of various kinds, including musical, royalty-free or free distribution.
In particular, on this site you can find albums and songs that are no longer protected by copyright, live recordings of concerts and performances, complete podcasts and much, much more. To use it, visit the archive.org website from the browser of your choice, tap the ☰ symbol located at the top left and select the items Headphones & Speakers andAll Audio, from the proposed menu.
Once on the next page, select one of the proposed categories by tapping the respective button or use the search bar located at the top to search for a song by title or author. If you consider it appropriate, you can refine the search results with the help of filters, available by tapping theFilter item.
Once you have identified the song you are interested in, tap its title, tap the VBR MP3 item located underDownload Options, long tap on the file name and select the Download linked file item, located in the panel that appears, to start the download. If you prefer to download a complete compilation, in the form of compressed file, use the button instead [X Files].
Other sites to download free music on iPhone
Download Music in High Quality
There are many other sites, in addition to those I mentioned above, that allow you to download free music on iPhone (but also on many other devices). Here are the ones that, in my opinion, represent the best in the category.
- SoundCloud - is a platform dedicated mainly to musicians and DJs who want to share their original works on the Net. However, not all songs may be available for download: some of them can only be used in streaming.
- NoiseTrade - another excellent website dedicated to the works of artists and independent labels, generally distributed under a Creative Commons license and, therefore, can be freely downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes.
- ccMix - is another portal dedicated to the promotion of free music content, distributed under a Creative Commons license: mainly, the ccMixter library is made up of remixes made by independent artists.
For an even richer list of sites to download free music, see the guide I have dedicated to this type of solutions.
Streaming application
Have you found the alternatives I have proposed so far interesting, but would you be interested in listening to free songs and albums produced by established artists in the music scene? In this case, the only legal way for you to proceed is to take advantage of thefree trial period made available by some streaming services.
Apple Music
The first service I want to tell you about is Apple Music: it is a music streaming platform, with offline listening features, fully integrated into the Music app. The subscription cost starts from €9.99/month for the Standard plan, however, when you sign up for the first time, you can take advantage of a 90-day Free Trial of the service (then you will need to deactivate the service, in order to avoid incurring additional costs). Also included in the Apple One subscription is a subscription that includes several Apple services, such as 50GB of space on iCloud Drive, Apple Music, Apple TV + and Apple Arcade games for €14.95/month. However, for €19.95/month, it is also possible to activate the family version of the plan with 200GB of space on iCloud Drive.
If you intend to take advantage of this option, open the iOS Music app, press the button to start the Apple Music free trial (usually located at the top) and complete the necessary steps to activate the service. This step, of course, is not necessary if you are already an Apple Music subscriber.
At this point, you just have to start adding the songs you prefer in your library, using the search and navigation options available; to add a song to your library, tap on open and then on the + symbol; to download it, tap on thecloud symbol.
To view and listen to downloaded songs, tap the Library tab, located at the bottom left, and tap the Downloaded Music item; if you do not see the above option, tap the Modify button located at the top and place the check mark next to theDownloaded Music item, to enable its display.
For more information on the features of Apple Music free trial, I recommend you read this guide; If, instead, you are interested in learning more about how the service works, I suggest you take a look at my tutorial dedicated entirely to Apple Music, full of useful information.
Amazon Music and Music Unlimited
Amazon Music, as it is easy to guess, is the music streaming service promoted by the great ecommerce Amazon; it is available in two versions: the base, included for free in the Amazon Prime subscription, which allows you to access a part of the Amazon Music catalog (2 million songs) and download songs offline; And Amazon Music Unlimited, a subscription independent of Prime that allows you to listen to the entire Amazon catalog, consisting of about 50 million songs, and download songs offline.
The Music Unlimited service costs 9.99 €/month (or 99 €/year), but you can try it for free for 30 days, even without subscribing to Amazon Prime, with no obligation to renew.
In any case, in order to use both services, it is essential to download and install the Amazon Music app directly from the App Store; then launch the app, log in with your Amazon account and, if necessary, follow the instructions you see on the screen, to activate the free trial period of Unlimited.
Once you have registered for the service, use the search engine to identify the songs of interest to you; to download them to your device, tap the button (...) and select the item Download, from the menu that appears. For Amazon Music Unlimited to display only the downloaded songs, tap thegear located at the top right and turnON the lever indicating theOffline Music Mode.
For more information on the use of Amazon Music and Music Unlimited, the subscription to the service and the cancellation of the trial period, I refer you to read my specific tutorial dedicated to this service.
Application to Download MP3 Music
Other streaming applications
In addition to the services I mentioned above, there are a number of music streaming apps that come with a free trial period and have offline song and album download capabilities.
For example, Spotify - the famous music streaming service allows you to take advantage of premium features at no cost (which, among other things, include the ability to download songs) for a limited period of time: generally, new subscribers to the service can take advantage of a 30-day or 90-day free trial.
There is alsoYouTube Music, the music streaming service promoted by Google, which can also be used from the iPhone through the corresponding application. It has the functionality to download songs in offline mode and can be tried for free for 14 days.
