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Reading Time: 7 minutesMusic without ads? Yes, please! The most popular music streaming services all offer a free tier, but constant ad breaks will take a toll on even the most casual listener. Subscribing to a paid streaming service is the best way to avoid annoying advertisements, and the monthly fee gives you access to tons of perks longtime digital music listeners are used to.
While paying for a new service isn’t an easy choice to make, free trials are abundant in the music streaming world. The big dogs typically offer substantial 3-month trial subscriptions, and even the lesser-known services offer a month or two of free listening. A clever consumer can bounce between services and enjoy free music for a year or more.
To help you put the top music streaming options through their paces, we’re breaking down how you can get free trials from the best services on the market. This way, you don’t need to spend a penny until you’re sure you’ve found your perfect match.
Tidal
Credit: Tidal
- Monthly Cost: $9.99 Premium and $19.99 HiFi
- Supported Devices: iOS and Android devices, smart TVs and streamers and car
- Free Trial Length: 30 days
If you are looking for the highest audio quality from a music streaming service, Tidal is a good choice. The top-tier HiFi plan offers uncompressed, audiophile-grade sound quality for your favorite hits. We suggest that you opt for the HiFi plan during your 30-day free trial with Tidal, as you’ll get Master-quality audio for the entire service. Plus, you can always downgrade to the Premium plan if you don’t find the high audio quality valuable to you.
Since Tidal is owned by Jay-Z, it grants users access to exclusive content from artists like Beyonce, Rihanna and more. One more reason to consider Tidal is its frequent discount offers — this year alone, we’ve seen multiple “$1 per month for X months” deals.
How to claim your free Tidal trial:
- Navigate to Tidal.com
- Click “Get Started”
- Create an account
- Follow the prompts to subscribe to the service
Check Out: Is a Tidal Subscription Worth Paying For?
Spotify Premium
Credit: Spotify
- Monthly Cost: $4.99 student, $9.99 individual, $15.99 family
- Supported Devices: Most phones, computers, and smart devices + car streaming
- Free Trial Length: 3 months
The free version of Spotify is genuinely great, but still has some disappointing limitations. If you really want unrestricted, ad-free access to quality audio both online and off, Spotify Premium is the way to go. Not only can you download all your favorite music, but Spotify’s Discover Weekly keeps your listening experience from growing stale by suggesting curated songs based on what you already love.
If you live with more than one person, the family account is worth the extra $5 per month. It comes with six accounts, including access to Spotify Kids, which is a family-friendly, standalone app with over 8,000 songs, playlists and stories just for kids.
How to claim your free Spotify trial promo:
- Head over to Spotify.com
- Select “Get Premium”
- Create a new account
- Follow Spotify’s instructions to prepare your specific devices for play
Apple Music
Credit: Apple Music
- Monthly Cost: $4.99 student, $9.99 individual, $14.99 family
- Supported Devices: iTunes, and for iOS and Android devices
- Free Trial Length: 3 months
Apple Music boasts a huge listening library of over 60 million songs and is also one of the first streaming services to offer listeners access to exclusive content
If you’re already using iTunes, Apple Music offers an enticing proposition. The service blends seamlessly with your iTunes library, allowing you to add tracks from the service into playlists that also contain your mp3s. This is one area where Apple excels over Spotify, which doesn’t make it easy.
How to claim your free Apple trial:
- Go to Apple.com/apple-music
- Click “Try it Free”
- Sign up for a new Apple ID or log in with an existing Apple ID
Amazon Music Unlimited
Credit: Amazon
- Monthly Cost: $7.99 for Prime members, $9.99 for non-members
- Supported Devices: iOS, Android, PC, Mac, Fire TV and Alexa-enabled devices
- Free Trial Length: 3 months
Amazon Music Unlimited really shines if you are already a Prime member, as you save $2 off the monthly price. This makes Amazon Music Unlimited slightly more affordable than the competition. Streaming is also seamless when using Alexa-enabled devices.
Try Amazon Music Unlimited Free
How to claim your free Amazon Unlimited trial:
- Select “Try it free” at Amazon’s Unlimited Music page
- If you are logged in to your Amazon account, you should be signed up automatically
- Check your subscriptions page to cancel anytime
Pandora Premium
Credit: Pandora
- Monthly Cost: $4.99 student, $7.99 military, $9.99 individual, $14.99 family
- Supported Devices: iOS, Android, Kindle devices, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Xbox One, Google Home
- Free Trial Length: 60 days
Pandora Premium offers the same song library as Spotify, but its goal is to hide the music you don’t like so it doesn’t keep popping up in searches. Pandora Premium also has a clean, minimal interface to streamline your listening experience.
While Spotify’s suggestive algorithms work well, the Pandora experience is designed around rating music. It pushes you to provide feedback more regularly, and some feel its more personalized because of that.
How to claim your free Pandora Premium trial:
- Head over to Pandora.com
- Select “Get 60 Days Free”
- Sign up for a new account or sign in with your existing Pandora account
YouTube Music
Credit: YouTube Music
- Monthly Cost: $6.99 student, $9.99 individual, $17.99 family
- Supported Devices: iOS, Android PC and Mac
- Free Trial Length: One month
If you were a Google Play Music user, YouTube Music might be worth your time, as you can transfer your old libraries over. Those who are big YouTube fans or Android users might also prefer this streaming service. But if YouTube is your thing, opting into YouTube Premium for $11.99 a month will give you access to ad-free YouTube streaming and downloadable videos on top of all the perks of YouTube Music.
How to claim your free Youtube Music trial:
- Check out Youtube.com/musicpremium
- Select “Try It Free”
- You will be prompted to complete your checkout with Google Pay
- Cancel anytime
Deezer Premium
Credit: Slickdeals/Deezer
- Monthly Cost: $4.99 student, $9.99 individual, $14.99 family
- Supported Devices: Most iOS, Android, and smart devices
- Free Trial Length: 30 days
Deezer’s music library has over 56 million songs and can be enjoyed even when you don’t have Wi-Fi. Deezer’s free streaming service is only available on mobile, but the paid Premium membership will allow you to access your music on virtually any device, even your car.
How to claim your free Deezer Premium trial:
- Access your free trial at Deezer.com
- Click “Deezer Premium” and create an account
- Follow Deezer’s instructions to prepare your specific devices for plan
TuneIn
Credit: TuneIn
- Monthly Cost: $9.99
- Supported Devices: Most iOS, Android, and smart devices
- Free Trial Length: 7 days
TuneIn is a streaming service that allows listeners to tune into radio stations around the country. With over 100,000 radio stations and millions of programs available on-demand, TuneIn is one of the most modern ways to get your radio fix. The service focuses more on radio programming and podcasts than music, but there are plenty of music-focused channels to choose from.
How to claim your free TuneIn trial:
- Navigate to TuneIn.com
- Select “Start Free Trial” and create an account
- Select your plan and follow the prompts to unlock your free trial
BBC Sounds
Credit: BBC Sounds
- Monthly Cost: Free
- Supported Devices: Most iOS, Android, and smart devices
If you’re a fan of BBC Radio, this is your one-stop shop for all things BBC. For one, it’s completely free to stream. Secondly, you’ll get access to the entire landscape of BBC Radio programming, included music mixes, talk shows, podcasts, news, and more.
SoundCloud Go+
Credit: Slickdeals/SoundCloud
- Monthly Cost: $4.99 (SoundCloud Go), $9.99 (SoundCloud Go+)
- Supported Devices: Most iOS, Android, and smart devices
- Free Trial Length: 30 days (SoundCloud Go+), 7 days (SoundCloud Go)
SoundCloud has long been a go-to for finding new, underground voices on their way to the top. While SoundCloud is free, you can now subscribe to one of their two premium tiers, SoundCloud Go and SoundCloud Go+. Both services let you listen to SoundCloud ad-free, and they also allow you to save unlimited tracks for offline listening. SoundCloud Go+ takes things a bit further, allowing you to listen to the highest quality audio and granting you access to the full SoundCloud library from mainstream releases to unique DJ sets or remixes. It also has a longer free trial period than the lesser tier, so it’s definitely worth checking out.
How to claim your free SoundCloud Go+ trial:
- Follow this link to SoundCloud Go+
- Select your plan and click “Start Your Free Trial”
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Eric Vega
Eric Vega is a Puerto Rican writer and filmmaker working out of Burbank, California. He has covered a plethora of topics in his writing including the looming threat of invasive species, the true spirit of the Juggalos, and why space travel will always be a carnival of nightmares.