How To Buy Music Without Itunes

Whether you're looking to buy a music single or a whole album, here are the best sites to visit. I'll start with the biggies -- iTunes and Amazon -- and move on to some of my favorites that you may not have heard of, including Bandcamp. If you want to play these files, most phones offer apps for each store or have their own native music apps.

how to buy music without itunes

iTunes may no longer be the star of Apple's lineup, given that Apple Music is the company's focus right now, but it's still one of the biggest digital marketplaces. iTunes still sets the standard for lossy music downloads, and its catalog should furnish all but your most obscure needs. Technically iTunes doesn't sell MP3s -- instead it sells its own AAC format, but these files can be read by almost every modern player.

If you use MacOS Catalina you can access it from Music > iTunes Store. Additionally, if you want to download lossless files you will need a Music membership, but you won't be able to keep the music if your subscription ends.

With the support of many indie music labels, Bandcamp (now a part of Epic Games) is perhaps the best alternative to iTunes or Amazon, particularly if your tastes run to the more esoteric. The site enables you to download in whichever format you like (MP3, FLAC, Apple Lossless) and seemingly as many times as you like, without paying extra. In addition, the site runs regular Bandcamp Friday events, which give 100% of the proceeds to the artist.

If you're an Amazon Prime member, then Amazon Music makes a lot of sense. You get a (limited) streaming service and a music store to buy MP3s from, in addition to streaming and automatic rips of physical discs that you buy. However, recently the company appears to be sidelining the service in favor of its subscription service --for instance, the digital music homepage is now essentially an ad for Amazon Music Unlimited.

If you're looking for a wide selection of MP3s (and also FLAC files) 7Digital is a viable alternative to the Qobuz download store (which is fantastic, but doesn't have MP3s). 7Digital is available in a number of countries and has decent pricing and regular sales offers. Though music is added to the site regularly it's often more difficult to find than on other sites -- for instance, the US store's front page and other discovery features haven't been updated in over two years.

If your tastes run to dance music with a sprinkling of indie, then you'll find a lot to love about Bleep. The site also has a good selection of 16-bit and 24-bit FLACs that aren't subject to the price hikes of some competitive vendors.

Despite the rise of streaming, millions of MP3s are still available for sale and the number of tracks is growing all of the time. All of the stores listed here enable you to either download songs legally to a computer or directly to your phone -- and most offer dedicated apps for Android. Be aware that due to Apple restrictions, iOS users may not be able to buy music from sources other than iTunes on their phones.

Google Play Music stopped selling MP3s in late 2020 as the company moved to the streaming-only YouTube Music. All of the above services offer an excellent alternative to Google Play Music, and some such as Bandcamp offer higher-quality lossless for the same price. One feature that YouTube Music did carry over from Google Play Music is the music locker, which lets you upload your own music library.

MP3 is known as a "lossy" format because it removes audio information in order to reduce file sizes, even at the maximum 320kbps rate. By comparison, FLAC is a "lossless" format because it doesn't remove info and instead compresses music in a similar way to a ZIP file. As a result, a FLAC sounds better than an MP3, especially one that's been ripped at a low 128-kbps bit rate.

You can only buy music from the iTunes store by downloading and installing iTunes on a computer, or by using the iTunes store app on an iOS device (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) - you can't, for example, buy/download iTunes music via a browser.

As someone who has bought hundreds of songs and albums on iTunes, I am bitterly disappointed about the latest iTunes 'update', and I cannot figure out how to buy songs or albums now, on my laptop, without joining Apples subscription service (tried it once, and I thought it was awful). I'm a 35 year user of Apple products, and I feel like I am being inexorably driven away, and Apple is slowly turning into Google. Really disappointed

After reading this article, you will learn five proven ways on how to add music to iPhone, be it with or without iTunes. Read on to get the details and apply one of them to enrich your music library right now.

Art cannot save one's life but can save one's soul. That's why we all need music. To bring music with us wherever you are, you need to add music to the mobile device in our hands, generally an iPhone. To help you enjoy music more conveniently, I will detail five ways on how to add music to iPhone. Carry out one of them and put the songs you like to your iPhone or iPad within minutes.

The five ways to put music on iPhone include: transfer music from computer to iPhone with iOS data transfer software, add music from Apple Music to your library, buy music from iTunes store, sync songs from one device to another via cloud storage, and add music from iTunes to iPhone. Each has its own pros and cons. Specify your needs and choose one to apply:

How to add music to iPhone without iTunes? It's advisable to use professional iOS data transfer software like EaseUS MobiMover to get things done. EaseUS MobiMover supports the data transfer between two iOS devices or between an iOS device and a comptuer (Mac or PC). With such a tool, you can add music to iPhone (or iPad) from computer or another iOS device.

Step 3. The selected music files will be classified in Audios, check the box and click "Transfer" to start transfering music from PC to iPhone. When it has done, open the Music app on your iPhone to check these songs.

If you want to add music to iPhone directly from the device, you can download music to your iPhone in the Music app. However, only Apple Music subscribers are allowed to add and download songs to the iOS device. Thus, you need to buy Apple Music subscription first if you prefer this way. (You have to turn on "Sync Library" to download music from Apple Music to your iPhone. To enable the option, go to "Settings" > "Music" and switch on "Sync Library".)

Cloud services like Dropbox allow you to sync your music library across your devices. That's why you can use it to add music to iPhone without iTunes. All of these cloud services work the same to sync files: You need to upload the songs you want to add to your iPhone to the cloud storage from the source device, then access and download the items from the target device, namely your iPhone in this case.

Step 3. Go to the Dropbox app on your iPhone and check the songs. You can download the music to your iOS device to make them always available when your iPhone is off from the internet connection.

It's no doubt that you can transfer music to your iPhone via iTunes. The only drawback with this solution is that the music from iTunes will cause the loss of the existing music, movies, TV shows, and books on your iPhone. This has prevented many users from using iTunes to add music to iPhone. If you don't mind the data syncing, follow to see how to add music to iPhone from iTunes.

Step 5. Select to sync the "Entire music library" or "Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres". If you choose the latter, you need to manually select the playlists, artists, and albums.

Do I have to join Apple Store to buy and download songs I want to buy? I can't figure out how to get to iTunes Store without joining Apple Music and paying a fee since I have done the update? Is this right? Please tell me this isn't the case!!

No, that's not right. You don't need to subscribe to Apple Music. You can continue to purchase music from the iTunes Store. Just switch your iTunes over to the iTunes Store option along the top of the window. Decline Apple Music.

I have declined Apple Music in my settings and searched the app store. When I click 'visit itunes store' nothing happens. All I want to do is get some tunes but Apple doesn;t want some of my money, just all of it, Samsung looks better all the time. I have neither the time nor patience to go through a labyrinth just because of some marketing guru/developer .

All I want to do is play music from my iTunes radio and I keep getting prompted to join Apple Music!!! WTH??? I have disabled AM from my settings and I still can't just play music from my radio....Samsung here I come.

iTunes Radio is now only available as part of iTunes Music. I don't believe Samsung offers a free radio service at all (but haven't checked lately) There are plenty of other free streaming music options: Pandora, TuneIn. I'm partial to Radio Paradise.

All I want to do is play music from my iTunes radio and I keep getting prompted to join Apple Music!!! WTH??? I have disabled AM from my settings and I still can't just play music from my radio....it's ALWAYS SOMETHING!!! Samsung here I come. 041b061a72