10+ Best Sites to Get Free Music Downloads Legally

Jamendo is a music world of independent musicians and new music explorers. All the tracks on Jamendo are under Creative Commons licenses, which means you can freely listen to and download the music and even the full album legally (a free Jamendo account is required). Jamendo also promises its music users a considerate user experience. You will find many featured content on Jamendo, such as the communities to explore the music of all genres and the well-curated playlists to enjoy music handpicked by Jamendo music experts. You can also try the radios to find great music and free download it for personal use. If you want to use the music in your video, you can buy the track license at a fair price.

The renowned music download website Free Music Archive (FMA) has now been acquired by Tribe of Noise, another great place to get royalty-free music. Yet it still keeps the old tradition to offer every audiophile high-quality (up to MP3 320Kbps), legal audio downloads for free. You can find a plethora of CC music published by independent or lesser-known artists here. And if you are lucky, you might come across some live music made by big names as well. Search FMA music by curators, genres, and charts, you can get what you want!

The Internet Archive is truly a repository of everything online. Its subsection Audio Archive has now over 14 million audio files collected, covering not just free legal music but all sorts of audio files like audio books & poetry, radio programs, news & public affairs, etc. as well. You can browse the music archive by views, title, creator, and date archived/published/reviewed/added, and continue to filter the results by media type, year, topics & subjects, collection, and language. The best thing about Audio Archive is you can find songs made by lesser-known artists as well as famous singers like John Mayer, Bruno Mars, Adele, and many more. The downloads are available in two formats, MP3 and OGG, which is far better than other similar sites.

Amazon offering free legal music downloads might be a little unexpected to most people. But it is what is really happening. Amazon has thousands of free music for selling at zero price. Yet finding these free music requires a little extra effort. You can enter “free music downloads” to search the matching items. To download the music from Amazon is like the regular purchase. You add the music to the shopping cart, you pay for it (at $0), and you have it. One last tip for you, Amazon regularly takes down and adds new free music to its site, so take the chance while you can.

SoundCloud gathers both professional musicians and independent artists in one place to share their music with the global audience. Meanwhile, it also provides you with featured communities to find like-minded creators. You can freely listen to their creative works in here, yet the download option is not available for all music. Despite this, you can still find a great resource of free legal music downloads by searching “free download” and the related keywords (some of the music download links might be broken).

Also read: How to Download SoundCloud Tracks, How to Download SoundCloud Playlists

NoiseTrade is one of the ideal legal music downloads sites where you can explore much exclusive music made by independent artists. You can get free music downloads legally by submitting your e-mail address and zip code in return to help the artists advertise their music. If you really like the music, you could generously tip the artist as well. All the music can be downloaded in a ZIP file containing the MP3 and album art. A little deficiency of NoiseTrade is that it has added other types of content like books and videos to its site, creating a negative experience for users.

As the name suggested, CCTrax offers all tracks under CC license and you can freely listen to and download any music on this site. It features the music of electronic, dub, techno, house, downtempo, ambient, and others. You can search the free downloads by genre, tag, and license (note the BY license which allows you to use music in YouTube video embedding). The best part about CCTrax is that you can download the full album painlessly at one go in lossless FLAC format. Also, no account is required.

Recommending tailored music to users is not the only thing Last.fm can do for you. If you go deeper (literally, scroll down the page to the bottom), you’ll find Free Music Downloads in its GOODIES section. And in the Free Music Downloads, you’ll meet a limited amount of legal music free for download. Though the number is not as vast as other sites, you might just find the music that suits your taste here. No account is needed as well.

I guess YouTube Audio Library is not a familiar name to most people, and maybe you wouldn't connect YouTube to music free download at all. But here we are. The YouTube Audio Library gives out free legal MP3 downloads and updates new free music to its database monthly. It now has over a thousand free songs sorted by track title, genre, mood, artist, and duration. You can freely download any music in the library and use it in your project without gaining a license. I bet you would find much ear-pleasing music here.

BTW, YouTube the video streaming site also has plenty of free legal music under CC license. You can search "free legal music download" and gain permission from the rights-holders to get free music downloads legally. (Free download the YouTube to MP3 downloader here)

If you are into hip-hop/rap music, then you can’t miss DatPiff, the ultimate destination for rap lovers. It offers a huge library of rap songs in the form of mixtapes for free downloading legally. And the free downloads are available even for unregistered users. Here, you can even get free music downloads from mainstream artists.

Musopen is the right place for all classical music lovers that you can find a wealth of treasured pieces of music from Bach to Chopin. All the music is royalty- and copyright- free and legal for any type of use. You can search the music by composer, instrument, period, mood, length, and many more. Even better, Musopen offers sheet music and educational materials for users as well. You can learn a new trick by studying on Musopen, wouldn’t that be nice!

Audiomack - And alternative to SoundCloud; a place to find a good collection of hip-hop, rap, and trap music; not all music is downloadable; no registration is needed. Check Audiomack Free Music Download.

Bandcamp - If it is possible, name your price at zero to get free music downloads legally. Check Bandcamp Free Music Download.

ReverbNation- Not all music is downloadable; find free legal music needs some extra effort. Check ReverbNation Free Music Download.

SoundClick - Free music is depended on the artist; requires a little digging to find free legal music. Check SoundClick Free Music Download.

BeatStars - Follow the artists' channels to get free music downloads.

PureVolume - Free music downloads are up to the artists.

Do you agree with our list of free legal music download sites? If you have any other great suggestions, please feel free to share it with us. Thanks for reading!