There are many ways to download music from the Internet, but more often than not, they are illegal. This applies to many sites where songs are in mp3 format, but there is no license for their legal use. This means, for example, that you will not be able to use it in your YouTube videos - you will immediately get a strike..
We found several popular sites where you can download foreign music for free and legally. The copyright holders themselves allowed it to be done! Of course, there will not be many famous hits on them, however, you can spend a little time and find tracks that are no worse. The sites mentioned in this list mainly provide English songs, with the exception of SoundCloud, which offers a decent collection of Hindi.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a music streaming community where users can upload and download songs. It's like YouTube, only with music instead of video. Artists share their tracks for free in the hopes of getting a lot of plays, similar to watching videos on YouTube. Among the users there are both amateurs and professionals of all genres. If the author has allowed downloading his track, then there will be a corresponding button, if it is not there, then you can only listen online..
You can listen to music without creating an account, but if you need to download it, you will have to register or log in via Facebook or Google+. The site has a convenient search by title, artist, popularity and genre. There is also a special section dedicated to tracks released under the Creative Commons license.
SoundCloud is great for those interested in finding new artists. Here you can always find interesting music, since the portal is the main way of promotion for many performers. After all, 174 million people visit it every month!
App available for Android and iPhone ..
Jamendo
Jamendo is an open community of independent artists and music lovers with over 700,000 tracks and 25,000 albums available for free download under a Creative Commons license. Audio files for listening are in MP3 format (96 kbps), and for downloading MP3 (192 kbps) or Ogg Vorbis. The site is available in Russian.
There is also a radio with different genres: jazz, classical, rock, hip-hop, trance. You can create your own playlists for different genres. Each artist has a profile that shows uploaded albums as well as their bio. You can not only listen to songs of your favorite artists, but also subscribe to their updates or donate through PayPal.
The search engine allows you to search for specific artists or tracks by title, as well as search by tags that musicians indicate to describe their songs (genre, instrument, mood, theme). Famous artists periodically upload their tracks to Jamendo.
The Royalty-Free Music section offers over 200 thousand inexpensive music tracks for use in various projects (advertising, movies, mobile apps, YouTube videos).
App available for Android and iPhone .
Audiomack
Audiomack is a relatively new but very promising project. There is a huge number of rap and hip-hop tracks from the world's leading artists. All music is legal and free to listen to and, depending on the artist, is available for download. The performers themselves decide whether to make the track available for download or not.
Audiomack is very easy to use. You can search for specific songs, albums, or browse the Trending or Top Songs sections. And there is also a Recently Added page to find tracks that have not yet become hits. There is currently no limit to the number of songs you can download. At the same time, it is not necessary to register at all. The mobile app has the ability to play audio files stored on the phone, such as MP3 and AAC. To do this, go to the My Library tab and follow the instructions to grant access to your local storage.
If you want, you can follow an artist or DJ you like, track their new downloads and other activity. Popular music that listeners like is regularly published on the main page.
App available for Android and iOS .
SoundClick
The SoundClick site has been in operation since 1997 and has a huge library of files available for download. In terms of functionality, the service is similar to SoundCloud, but it has a slightly different specialization - amateur music. There are millions of tracks from different genres here: hip-hop, country, jazz, alternative and much more. SoundClick reports 4.5 million songs, 530,000 artists and over 4.5 million registered members. The artist page can contain news, tour calendar and group information.
Download availability depends on the user who uploaded the file to the server. If he allowed, then there will be a corresponding button. Most of the songs are available on a non-commercial basis. Songs can be licensed for free under a Creative Commons license, or distributed on a paid basis.
Last.FM
The Last.FM service appeared in 2002, initially it was an Internet radio station like Pandora or iHeartRadio. But already in 2005, the service launched the Audioscrobbler system, which collects data from dozens of media players and music streaming services. This information is transmitted to the Last.fm database either through a music player (including, but not limited to, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal and MusicBee). The data is then displayed on the user's profile page.
Last.FM is now a free music repository. It's in the Free Music Downloads section, a link to which can be found at the bottom of the page. The selection is very large, from Sufjan Stevens to Glitch Mob. But some files are only shareware.
All files are in MP3 format. However, not all of them can be downloaded. The free collection is very limited as most of the users who download the content don't want to lose money. But Last.FM has a big advantage - there is no need to create an account, just click on the download button, if there is one.
Bandcamp
Launched in 2008, Bandcamp is a portal for music lovers, artists and labels. There is a filter by 25 genres, as well as a list of the most popular and new songs. Bandcamp allows you to download individual songs and entire albums without the need to register. Artists share their music here on a “name your price” basis. This means that you can put a zero in the payment box to download it for free.
The interface is a little confusing, there is no way to filter by location and genre at the same time. A bit disappointing is the lack of the ability to listen to the entire playlist continuously or in shuffle mode. These small drawbacks can ruin the experience, but the service gives users the opportunity to feel connected with the artist through the donation system. For some, this will cover all the voiced shortcomings.
Unfortunately, not every song you find will be free and available to download. And also there is no special page for which there would be only free tracks. Therefore, you will have to search "by typing".
App available for Android and iPhone .
ReverbNation
On ReverbNation can find such well-known artists such as Alabama Shakes, Imagine Dragons, and many others. They all started with this portal, trying to unwind and find their audience. After all, everyone can upload their music. There are many different genres here, however, most of them are hip-hop.
ReverbNation creates a hit parade for every city around the world. To climb the charts, musicians must improve their Band Equity: keep getting new followers, more Facebook likes, more streams, more Twitter followers, and so on. A registered user can create a personal playlist for himself.
DatPiff
DatPiff was launched in 2005 by Markus Fraser. Today DatPiff is considered the largest rap and hip-hop music portal from famous and emerging artists. Only here you can find free music from such world artists as Future and Drake. A key feature of DatPiff is that unregistered users are allowed to download for free any mixtape uploaded to a site that is sponsored by an artist or label.
It has a lot of free music, most of which comes in the form of mixes of various tracks. For over a decade, DatPiff has been involved in the promotion and release of thousands of successful mixtapes. Each performer tries to show his individuality, remaking famous hits, composing his own or performing works by popular authors.
You can register as an artist or fan - the main difference is that the first to upload their work to the site, while fans can only listen to these works. Many famous benchmarks have used DatPiff as a launching pad for their careers.
