If you’re starting out and don’t have a big budget, you may wonder – how can I release music for free? There are lots of websites to upload music for free. Many of these also allow fans to download them for nothing, taking your tunes to a global audience. 

Are you keen to distribute your music and looking for places you can put it, so you can reach more people? In this article, we’ll list the most used and popular places to release your music without paying a penny. Read on to find out the best sites for giving your music away free online, as well as the pros and cons of each.  

Websites to upload music for free 

There are a number of sites offering music fans both uploads and downloads at no cost. While they won’t make you rich, they’ll give you access to much wider audiences. We recommend you use one (or several) of the sites we’ve mentioned. There are lots of illegal ones too. Keep away from those, so your music doesn’t get a bad reputation and you don’t get in trouble. Illegal downloads are incredibly damaging to everyone in the music industry.  

It’s worth knowing a little about what’s involved before uploading your music, including the differences between streams and downloads – and why it matters. 

Upload your song for free download 

If someone wants to listen to your songs on a plane or when the WiFi is down, they won’t be able to stream. But downloads are still playable – provided they downloaded them when connected to the internet.  

Many of the streaming sites make downloads part of the paid memberships – iTunes, Spotify and Tidal all allow you to release music for free, but fans will have to pay to download your tunes (or have a paid membership). This can be a disadvantage. However there are also sites catering to those wanting free downloads – or you can create your own.