The best free music downloader 2017

Free music downloader 2017




Free music downloaders

iTunes and Google Play Music aren’t the only sources of music online – all kinds of websites and services offer songs to download free.
But what’s the best way to get it? Should you go for a torrent app for finding FLAC files, or would you have more success grabbing audio from YouTube clips? Whatever your preference, you’ll find the free music downloader that’s right for you right here.
As ever, we need to stress the importance of copyright: you should only download music if you have the express permission of the copyright holder, or the music is in the public domain.


1. qBittorrent




Torrent distribution is brilliant for transmitting large files, and that’s why it’s the favoured tool of the high-res audio crowd: high quality FLAC files, uncompressed WAV or AIFF files or the new generation of studio quality masters can be massive, and there’s nothing more frustrating than a huge file that’s taking forever to download.
Bittorrent downloads from multiple hosts simultaneously, making it a very fast and robust way to get hold of music. There are several really good Bittorrent clients for PC, but we think qBIttorrent is the most flexible: it covers most of the bases without being difficult to use or too demanding of your PC.
Download here: qBittorrent

2. Freemake YouTube to MP3 Boom



Don’t worry, the app is a lot less clunky than the name. Freemake’s music downloader is designed specifically for getting music from YouTube, and it automatically downloads MP3s in the highest possible quality – 320Kbps – if available. You can use it as a YouTube search engine, enabling you to find music from the comfort of your desktop without having to invoke your web browser, or you can paste a YouTube address into it to start a download.
There aren’t any fancy swarming features like you’ll find with torrent downloads, but as a cheap and cheerful way to get YouTube audio, Boom is hard to beat.

3. MP3Jam



If your YouTube requirements are a little more complex, check out MP3Jam. This free music downloader has multi-threaded file downloads, which means it can download from multiple sources simultaneously, and it can run multiple downloads at the same time too. It tries to find the highest quality – up to 320Kbps – and there’s a useful hashtag search you can use to find music of particular genres. There’s a built-in music player too.
The only downside is that the free app is deliberately limited in the hope you’ll buy a one-day or lifetime subscription. If you don’t, you can only download five tracks every 25 minutes and you can’t download full albums.
Download here: MP3Jam

4. Lacey: Free Music and Video Downloader



It's not too pretty and some of the blurb on third-party download sites is out of date – a few of the music services it used to connect to are long gone – but Lacey: Free Music and Video Downloader enables you to search for free and legal music from sites such as Bandcamp and SoundCloud, as well as download from the likes of Baidu and YouTube if you have the copyright holder's permission.
It looks rather like Windows Explorer, and it’s packed with useful features including automatic transcoding to MP3 (especially handy for videos where you just want the audio), automatic downloading of cover art and easy filtering of search results.

5. Frostwire



Remember how peer-to-peer networks changed the way people found music? They’re still doing their thing, and while the likes of Napster and LimeWire are long gone, you can still kick it old-school with FrostWire.
It connects to multiple torrent trackers and cloud-based download sites to help you find exactly what you’re looking for, and it includes a music player and music library manager to keep your music organised.
It feels like a modern take on the old P2P apps, and is really simple and effective.
Download here: Frostwire

6. Soundnode


We’re bending the rules a little bit here because Soundnode connects to SoundCloud, which streams music rather than downloading it, but we think that’s okay because the app itself is so good. It’s exactly the kind of app you’d have thought SoundCloud would build itself – which is funny, because it only exists because SoundCloud killed its own desktop app some time ago.
Soundnode enables you to stream music, browse playlists and share songs with others and it effectively makes SoundCloud feel like Spotify. It’s a little buggy – it’s an ongoing project – but it’s already very impressive.
Download here: Soundnode

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