How to Listen to Music on Your Phone (Without a Subscription, If You Want)

I held out on streaming services for years. My CDs were on a shelf in the basement. I knew where every Glenn Miller record was, and Glenn Miller, in my opinion, has not been improved by anyone since 1942. The first time my granddaughter asked me to "put on Glenn Miller" while she was visiting and I had to admit that the record player was at the bottom of three boxes of Christmas decorations, I knew it was time.

What follows is what I've learned, in roughly the order I learned it. There is more than one right answer.

The free options that nobody mentions

Before we get to paid subscriptions, here's what's already on your phone for free.

Local radio through TuneIn or your station's own app. Almost every AM and FM radio station in the country broadcasts a parallel feed over the internet. The TuneIn app (free, no account required) lets you search for your local station and play the same broadcast you'd hear from the kitchen radio, but on your phone. The audio quality is better than the kitchen radio because there's no antenna involved. If you have a favorite NPR station or a local oldies station, this works.

YouTube. Almost any song ever recorded has been uploaded to YouTube by someone. Search the song name and the artist. Tap play. The audio is free; the limitation is that you have to keep the YouTube screen open to keep the music playing — switch apps and it stops. (YouTube's paid version, YouTube Premium, fixes this and costs $14 a month.)

Library music apps. Many public libraries lend music through apps called Hoopla and Freegal. Free with a library card. Selection varies by library. Worth checking before paying for a subscription.

AM/FM radio if your phone supports it. Some Android phones (mostly LG and Motorola) include an actual FM radio chip. Plug in a wired pair of headphones to act as the antenna. The pre-installed Radio app catches local stations without any internet at all. iPhone does not have this feature.

The paid streaming options

Three are worth comparing. Each costs about the same, around $11 a month, with a "family plan" version around $17 a month that covers up to six people.

Spotify. The biggest catalog, the most polished app, the best at suggesting music similar to what you already like. Free version exists with ads; the paid version removes them. Works on every phone, every speaker, every car stereo.

Apple Music. Same scale as Spotify, slightly better integration with the iPhone, slightly worse on Android. If you're already in the Apple ecosystem — iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — Apple Music feels native. If you're on a Pixel or Samsung, Spotify is the easier choice.

YouTube Music. Comes bundled with YouTube Premium for an extra few dollars. Includes some music not on the other services, particularly live concert recordings and old radio sessions. The Spotify of the YouTube generation, increasingly.

I subscribed to Apple Music for the first six months I had an iPhone, then switched to Spotify because most of my grandchildren use Spotify and the "send me the playlist" function only works between the same service. There is no correct answer; pick the one your family uses.

Getting your own CDs onto the phone

If you have CDs you want on the phone — which I did — the process is a small project but not difficult.

You need a computer with a CD drive. Most modern laptops don't include one anymore; an external USB CD drive from Amazon or Best Buy costs about $25 and works on either Windows or Mac.

Use the computer's built-in music app to copy the CD onto the computer. On a Windows PC, Windows Media Player has been replaced by an app called Media Player (yes, that's the actual name). On a Mac, the Music app does it. Either way, the process is called "ripping" — the CD goes in, the music comes out as MP3 or AAC files on the computer.

Once the music is on the computer, the second step is to get it onto the phone. If you have an iPhone, the Apple Music app on the computer syncs them across. If you have Android, the simplest path is to upload the files to Google Drive or another cloud service, then play them through the Drive app on the phone.

Honestly: if you have fewer than fifty CDs, ripping them all is a winter project. If you have hundreds, it's a year-long project, and at some point you should ask yourself whether streaming would be cheaper and faster.

How to actually listen

Through the small phone speaker, the audio is fine for a quiet room and bad for anything else. The phone speaker is a small piece of plastic, no matter how impressive the rest of the phone is.

Through a pair of wired earbuds (if your phone has a headphone jack — most don't, but you can buy a $9 USB-C to headphone adapter), the audio is dramatically better. This is the cheapest upgrade in audio possible.

Through wireless earbuds (AirPods, Pixel Buds, Galaxy Buds, or any reputable brand), the audio is similarly good and there's no cord to manage. About $100 to $250 depending on brand.

Through a Bluetooth speaker on a kitchen counter, the audio fills the room. About $40 to $150 for a good one. JBL, Bose, Sonos all make reliable options.

Through the car's stereo, the audio is whatever your car gives you. If the car has Bluetooth, the phone pairs to it once and from then on the music plays through the car speakers automatically. Most cars after 2013 support this; older cars may need an FM transmitter adapter.

The thing I should have done sooner

I bought a small Bose Bluetooth speaker for the kitchen counter in March. About $130. The phone pairs to it automatically when I walk into the room. I tap the Spotify app and Glenn Miller comes out of a speaker about the size of a coffee mug at a volume that fills the kitchen.

My CDs are still in the basement. I have not been down there in eight months. My wife is happy because the basement is no longer a project. The kitchen has more music in it than it did in 2005. The math, looking back, is much better than it looked at the time.

If you've been waiting to switch over, you don't have to. Streaming and the old way can coexist on the same shelf. But if you're curious, the entry cost is modest and the music catalog is the entire history of recorded music. Glenn Miller is in there. I checked.

Written by Robert Sandoval. Last verified 19 June 2026.