Finding a completely unlimited music listening experience can be a real challenge. Many music streaming services offer free and paid tiers, but place restrictions on the features available in the free plan. Spotify’s free package, for example, doesn’t offer high-quality audio and only lets you listen outside the country for up to 14 days.
If you want to listen to free music without limitations, these are the music streaming services with no restrictions.
1. AccuRadio
AccuRadio is an online music streaming service curated entirely by humans rather than by bots and algorithms. The site has been online since 2000 and has now grown into more 1,000 curated radio channels across more than 50 different musical genres.
The stations—which have titles such as Listeners’ Top 100 and Today’s New Country—boast a litany of tracks from the top singers and bands of the moment. All of the playlists offer unlimited skips.
In theory, AccuRadio restricts the number of songs you can listen to within 24 hours. It doesn’t put a number on the amount, but does say “[the limit] is set so high that it should be extremely difficult for a listener to reach this limit, even if they listen for a long time and skip many songs.”
2. Cliggo
Cliggo is a great free Spotify alternative. It doesn’t have some of the premium features you get with Spotify (like offline listening), but it gives you the option to create and save playlists and listen to genre radio stations. As you navigate the website to look for additional music to add to your playlists, playback will not be interrupted.
Cliggo pulls most of its music from YouTube and then presents it in a way that makes it easier to create playlists and skip within songs.
Cliggo offers apps for Android, iOS, and Fire TV, along with a web app for your browser of choice.
3. Jango
Jango is another unlimited music streaming service that offers mobile apps and genre and artist radio stations. The service is not completely ad-free, but the developer claims you’ll only have to listen to one ad per day, so it deserves a spot on this list.
You can create new stations by searching for your favorite artists or browse suggested stations by genre or decade. There’s also a blacklist feature; you can “ban” specific songs so they don’t show up in your radio stations.
Unfortunately, you can’t skip within songs to a specific spot on the track. The app does let you search for and play specific songs, but it will show you the full YouTube video—if you’re looking for specific songs, Cliggo is a better choice.
4. Pandora
Like Spotify, Pandora has both a free and a paid tier. The free service is ad-supported, but offers personalized music radio stations, the ability to search and play any song on the platform (as long as you listen to one ad), and unlimited track skips. You cannot listen offline or make/share playlists on the free tier.
Pandora is only available in the US. It has mobile apps for Android and iOS.
5. Hype Machine
Hype Machine is a music discovery service which aggregates content from music blogs. Almost all of the tracks listed are available on either SoundCloud or Bandcamp, so you can listen for free.
You can use Hype Machine to find new and up-and-coming artists as well as remixes of established artists. You can select to listen to music according to genre or artist, add songs to your favorites, and create a personalized music stream. The service has accompanying free apps for both Android and iOS.
6. YouTube
YouTube is a great source for all kinds of music. You can find the latest hits, classic tracks, new music, and content from every genre under the sun. There are even Chrome extensions that make it easy to plug into the site’s endless music collection without needing to visit YouTube.com.
YouTube is not completely free of advertising. However, you’re usually able to skip ads quickly and get back to listening to music.
The site also has a leg up on services like Spotify and Apple Music, with artists happy to upload their videos for the public to watch for free. You’ll even often find artists’ top tracks and albums that are not available on other music streaming services.
NB: While it doesn’t count as a restriction, remember that it’s inadvisable to download YouTube videos.
7. StreamSquid
If you are looking for music apps that are not blocked by schools, check out StreamSquid. Anecdotally, students seem to have more luck using this online music player in their colleges than almost any other. Remember however that the music apps that aren’t blocked by schools will vary on a school-by-school basis, depending on the filters being used.
StreamSquid also has very few restrictions from a useability standpoint. You can access your listening history, create playlists, search for songs, play any songs, skip unlimited tracks, and even create a library of your favorite music. The service has an Android app in the Google Play Store, but there is no iOS app.
8. Soundzabound
We end with Soundzabound. It is the best unrestricted music streaming service for anyone involved in education who needs music for their project, presentation, podcast, or video yearbook.
That’s because Soundzabound provides access to a huge library of royalty-free music, audio themes, and sound effects for students between the K12 and university levels. Because the music is royalty-free, you can also upload it to services like Facebook and YouTube without being censored.
Music is available across almost every musical genre and region you can think of. Some of it is free to download and use, while some of it you will need to pay for.
What’s Your Favorite Music Streaming Service?
Truly free, unlimited music streaming services are hard to come by. There’s almost always a catch. These services give you a combination of radio and playlist options, and music ranging from new and obscure artists to established chart-toppers. Let us know which is your favorite unrestricted music app in the comments below.
To learn more about free options, check out the best free alternatives to paid streaming services.
Read the full article: The 8 Best Free Online Music Streaming Services With No Limitations
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