There are several types of free music album download sites and legal. The first historically are pure download sites. Then, from the 2000s, came the streaming sites, which incidentally offered downloads as an additional service.
Here is a mix of the best sites of each of the two types.
Spotify
Spotify is the largest streaming platform in the world in terms of number of subscribers. At the end of 2018, the Swedish platform had 191 million monthly active users worldwide, including 90 million paying subscribers.
The site has a portfolio of more than 40 million music titles. The platform is accessible via the internet, mobile applications and Internet of Things compatible (Amazon Alexa and Google Home assistants). It offers the largest catalog of music album download.
A free offer is offered allowing you tolisten to streaming music against listening to advertisements without the possibility of downloading. The free offer has just been revamped and now includes 15 playlists updated daily (compared to random playback of titles previously).
Spotify official website: https://www.spotify.com
Deezer
La French platform de music album download at the end of 2018, it had just under 20 million users with a portfolio of musical titles of more than 50 million musical titles.
While at the creation in 2007 Deezer was a completely free platform, the platform turns to a premium paid model. This positioning is due to a desire to stand out from the competition.
However, there remains a free offer which allows limited listening over time, with advertising, without the possibility of downloading and on a restricted catalog of titles. It is possible to access Deezer via mobile application and via the Google Home or Amazon Alexa assistants.
While Spotify is the world's leading platform for music streaming, in France, it is Spotify which is the platform for music streaming the most popular with 50% market share at the start of 2018.
Deezer official website: https://www.deezer.com
noisetrade
noisetrade is a platform for independent artists that allows you to listen and download different types of music (sound effects, background music, musical albums etc.). Possibility of voluntarily rewarding the artist.
This service is offered upon provision of personal data (name, email address, etc.) which will be shared with the artist. Who will thus be able to promote themselves directly to their fans.
NoiseTrade official website: hazelnut
Google Play Music and YouTube Music
Launched several years ago, Google's platform has 40 million music tracks. The free version does not allow the music download, however, there are a multitude of extensions that offer to save audio streams listened to on YouTube.
Recently launched in France (early 2018) by Google, the free version of the YouTube Music offer has many limits.
Youtube music is an attempt to relaunch under another brand Google Play Music which had not interested the market. Currently GooglePlay Music and Youtube Music coexist in the form of mobile applications.
With impressive catalogs, these services cannot be ignored. Their download policy is poorly defined: while the reuse of downloaded music is prohibited; multitudes of mobile applications and search engines specializing in mp3s search for music offered for download on Youtube.
Youtue Play Music official website
SoundCloud
Music platform which favors independent rather than commercial music. While the music album download service has existed since 2007, it was only in 2016 that SoundCloud offered a paid offer.
The service's portfolio includes no less than 125 million musical titles. The free offer is only available for a limited period of 30 days.
The service is available on Apple mobile devices and Android as well as on the Xbox platform.
SoundCloud official website: https://soundcloud.com
Apple Music
The service of music streaming Apple launched in recently (2015) is the 2nd streaming service in the world behind Spotify. It had just over 50 million subscribers at the end of 2018.
The streaming service is closely linked to the Apple ecosystem (iTunes) and on Android via a mobile application. The service does not offer a free offer but a particularly long trial period (3 months free).
Apple Music official website: https://www.apple.com/fr/music/
Jamendo
Free music download service of artists who have decided to put their creations under the free license regime. These are therefore unknown or little-known artists who use this service to promote themselves. But with an interesting portfolio of 600 thousand musical pieces.
Jamendo official website: https://www.jamendo.com
Free Music Archive
Song Download Service royalty free music (Creative Commons license). The archive represents 45 thousand pieces of music in the portfolio. The site was recently (end of 2018) acquired by KitSplit, a photography equipment rental site.
Free Music Archive official website: https://freemusicarchive.org