Free Music Discovery Tools 🎶

Travel through time and around the world with sound

I love apps like Metronaut and Tomplay, which let me carry a collection of classical (sheet) music on my phone. They also provide piano or orchestral accompaniment for any violin piece I want to play.

Today’s post shares 10 other recommended tools for music lovers from my fellow writer and friend, Chris Dalla Riva, who writes Can't Get Much Higher, a popular Substack focused on the intersection of music and data. I invited Chris to share with you his favorite resources for discovering, learning, and creating music.

By day, Chris works at the music streaming service Audiomack. His debut book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves comes out today, November 13, 2025, via Bloomsbury. He wrote it while listening to every single #1 hit in history. The rest of the post👇 is by Chris. - Jeremy Caplan

Do you have a favorite music site, app, or tool to share? Leave a comment.

Learn about Music 🎼

Genius

Chris: If you are looking to understand the lyrics to your favorite songs, turn to Genius, a crowdsourced website of lyrical annotations. Sometimes you’ll even find artists annotating their own lyrics or breaking things down in a video. (FREE)

WhoSampled

Searching through WhoSampled is like looking at musical DNA. Based on crowdsourced information, the site allows you to see how songs are connected through samples, interpolations, and covers. This was an incredible resource for researching the decline of cover songs in my book. (FREE, but you can pay $3/month for additional features.)

Discover New Music 🎵

Every Noise at Once

Maintained by Spotify’s former data alchemist Glenn McDonald, Every Noise maps all genres on Spotify. For any of the thousands of genres in Spotify’s catalog, you can see four playlists.

• The Sound Of playlist will give you a wide taste of the genre.

• The Intro playlist is where beginners should start.

• The Pulse playlist is what fans are listening to right now.

• The Edge playlist spotlights more obscure tracks in the genre.

(FREE, though more useful with a Spotify subscription.)

Radiooooo

The name looks fake, but this site is real and incredible. It allows you to listen to music not just from around the world, but across time, as curated by humans. Want to hear the music of Nicaragua in the 1980s? Canada in the 1940s? Thailand in the 1960s? Radiooooo is the place for you. (FREE)

Radiooooo: listen to popular music anywhere in the world, from 1900 to now

Radio Garden

While Radiooooo curates recordings, Radio Garden actually lets you hear what’s playing on thousands of radio stations around the globe right now. (FREE)

Learn an Instrument 🎹

Yousician

Available on the web, Android, iOS or Mac/PC, Yousician is one of the most robust music education platforms. Learn guitar, bass, ukulele, piano, or voice, with thousands of interactive songs and lessons. It’s helpful whether you’ve been playing for years or are picking up an instrument for the first time. (7-day free trial, then $30/month or $140/year; Black Friday 72% sale ends December 6).

Chordify

Chordify makes learning new songs easy, especially if you are a novice. Not only do they list chord progressions and give you the ability to transpose them, but those progressions will sync with the recording, so you can really get your timing right. Note: Chordify lacks the lessons you’ll find on Yousician. (Much of the platform is free, but you can access additional tools for between $2 and $3.50/month, and there’s a Black Friday sale for $1/month.)

Ultimate-Guitar

This long-running guitar tablature site helps you play any song you like. Its catalog may be bigger than any other learning platform. I recommend using Ultimate-Guitar on the web, as the app locks many features behind a paywall. (Most tabs on the site are free, with paid access to special features like interactive tabs, for $10/month or $40/year; 80% Black Friday sale.)

Tools for Artists 🎸

Splice

Do you need instrument plug-ins, sound effects, and royalty-free samples for your next creation? There is no better destination than Splice. ($13 to $40/month, depending on your plan.)

Moises

Packed with everything from smart metronomes to lyric transcription, Moises is my favorite tool for stem separation. It allows you to break an audio file into its component tracks, which can help with remixing, remastering, and reimagining recordings. ($6 to $30/month.)

For Paid Subscribers: My Music Posts