Want to get your hands on the coolest Chinese beats without spending a cent?
Let’s start exploring sites to download Chinese music/ songs for free. Chinese Music Downloading Sites Baidu. Everyone in China is aware of Google alternatives of China. The Baidu search engine has a dedicated mp3 portal from where you can download latest Chinese mp3 songs for free. It also offers a variety of music.
Now that’s an offer you don’t want to pass up—especially if you want to learn the language faster!
You probably know that music is a powerful language learning tool, but languages like Chinese are especially well suited to be taught using music because pronouncing their words and phrases correctly involves understanding the various pitches and tones.
That’s why sometimes when you speak in Chinese, it’s almost like you’re singing.
So to make your playlist and get started, you’ll need to download some songs.
That’s why we have put together this handy list of over 15 sites where you can download (and sometimes even stream) millions of songs in Chinese.
To make life even easier for you, we’ve hand picked actual Chinese songs for each site—covering genres from rap to children’s music, and famous Chinese artists like Jay Chou and Bella Yao.
1. BuddhaNet
BuddhaNet is a site where the music featured helps listeners focus, meditate or even just find inner peace to help better themselves in anything that they’re trying to do. Many of these songs do not contain any real lyrics, so you might be wondering how this site can even help you with your language learning. After all, the whole idea of learning languages with music is to listen to natives sing while following along to their lyrics and practice speaking them right?
Not necessarily. And here’s why.
Foreign language immersion isn’t just about listening and speaking. To master learning any language requires taking the time and effort to actually study which does, in fact, require picking up books and reading every now and then. This genre of Buddhist music can be very advantageous to people who have troubling doing this.
In addition to surrounding yourself in a more calming and relaxing environment to help you get some serious studying done, many of the songs featured on this site actually do have words that you can sing (or rather chant) along to. This is definitely a win-win for those of you who want to learn how to speak Chinese—even if the songs don’t have people speaking in them all the time.
To sum it up, this special website has a lot to offer, and all of the songs are available to download too.
Song to check out: “Man with Love” by Daniel Yeo
2. Red Karaoke
What makes the site Red Karaoke so awesome is that it contains instrumental MP3s to thousands of Chinese songs. Why is this so great for you? Well, a huge part of learning how to speak Mandarin Chinese successfully is actually learning how to pronounce the words correctly while constantly increasing your vocabulary at the same time.
Singing the words out loud is truly an efficient way to learn because the mind is very receptive to music. Plus songs often use repetition, which helps the words stick with you even more.
One of the most efficient and fun ways to learn song lyrics before you try your hand at karaoke is with FluentU. FluentU is a language immersion platform where you learn Chinese through entertaining real-world videos (like music videos!). With FluentU’s unique Learn Mode, multimedia flashcards, interactive subtitles and downloadable transcripts, you’ll be able to learn songs inside out!
Then, when you’re ready for Red Karaoke, find the song’s lyrics and then sing away! Even you can’t hold a tune, at least you’re practicing your Chinese in a fun, creative way.
Song to check out: “Baby Don’t Cry – 人鱼的眼泪” (rén yú de yăn lèi – Tears of a Mermaid) by EXO M
3. Kugou
Ever wanted to listen to high-quality Chinese music on a trustworthy site? Although this site is a little hard to navigate and the search engine isn’t the greatest, once you get the hang of it Kugou can be very useful to growing your collection of Chinese music.
Baidu Mp3 Download Chinese Song
Know what’s also cool about Kugou? You can watch live musical performances by rookies and famous singers alike in HD through their partner site, Fanxing.
Song to check out: “What Kind of Man – 算什麼男人” (suàn shén me nán rén) by Jay Chou 周杰倫 (zhōu jié lún)
4. Ihonhon
While this site may not be the most exciting visually, there are many advantages to using Ihonhon, or at least keeping the home page bookmarked.
For one, the site is very easy to navigate. Also, if your Chinese reading skills aren’t that fantastic (yet), but you can read English just fine, then you’re in luck as everything is in English.
Song to check out: “Let It Go” (Chinese Version) – 隨它吧” (suí tā ba) by Bella Yao 姚貝娜 (yáo bèi nà)
5. Baidu
Baidu (also known as Baidu Music) is a wonderful site where you can not only download songs for free, but you can also download the song in various file formats so it’s ready for whichever electronic device you’re using.
It’s also pretty nice that the trending songs featured are categorized in top 10s, 100s, and even 500s charts (all of which are available to be downloaded).
Although this site is mostly targeted towards those who live in China, you can access it outside of China with a VPN blocker.
Song to check out: “Young – 样” (yàng) by TFBOYS
6. 5ND
Among the various sites featured on this list, 5ND is one of the most popular. Not only are all of the songs available for download copyrighted, but the downloading process is quick and painless.
Once you click on a song that interests you, the song will play, but then there is another button that allows you to just download it to your computer or other media device. Pretty simple, right?
Song to check out: “Fairytale – 童話” (tóng huà) by Michael Wong
7. Sogou MP3
If you’re wanting to listen to popular Chinese songs by the hottest artists but aren’t too familiar with any of them, then we highly recommend Sogou MP3. This site is known for being a top Chinese music search engine for many people.
On its main page alone, there will be a huge list of trending songs all with several different links to allow users to download in formats like MP3, WMA and more. In other words, if you’re looking for the “Google” of Chinese music, then Sogou is perfect.
Song to check out: “Chick Chick – 小雞小雞” (xiăo jī xiăo jī) by Wang Rong Rollin 王蓉 (wáng róng)
8. 9Sky
Now this site is all about music! 9Sky is heavily similar to other Chinese music sites, but what’s really cool about it is that it has songs from decades ago as well as the most current tunes.
What’s more is that many of the songs also come with lyrics and information about the song’s artists. The site’s layout is really eye appealing as well. The font is large and the pages aren’t too cluttered to the point of making newcomers to the site feel overwhelmed.
The only possible downside to this site is that users must first register before they’re able to download any content, but fortunately, registration is free.
Song to check out: “DNA” by By2
9. Little Dragon Tales
Learning Chinese through children’s songs can be very beneficial to your studies. Because these songs are geared towards kids (who are naturally already language learning pros) to teach them how to speak Chinese using simple words, repetition and immersion, Little Dragon Tales can be a great resource for adult learners too.
While you can’t directly download any song tracks from their site, you can view the track titles and follow the links to download their album through iTunes and Amazon.
Song to check out: “Congratulations – 祝贺” (zhù hè) by The Shanghai Restoration Project
10. 9Ku
If you want to find and download songs in Chinese without having to put that much effort into it, then 9Ku is totally your site. What it lacks in quantity in songs, it makes up for in simplicity. There are no frills or complications to this site. All one has to do have access to free downloadable songs is register an account, select a song and download.
That’s the main point to 9Ku, though there are also some featured music videos and special rankings on their site for your convenience.
Song to check out: “Home – 故乡” (gù xiāng) by Xu Wei 许巍 (xŭ wéi)
11. VeryCD
Chinese New Year Songs Mp3 Free Download
Ever heard of sites where you can download full albums, movies and other media for free? VeryCD is one of these; it’s a torrent site with content uploaded from people all over the world. This is perfect for of you who want not only songs, but other sources of media to have at your disposal.
VeryCD can seem a little intimidating at first, but with a little patience, you’ll have free access to all sorts of cool stuff.
Song to check out: “Little Apple – 小苹果” (xiăo píng guŏ) by Chopstick Brothers
12. Mama Lisa
Mama Lisa is similar to Little Dragon Tales in terms of the type of Chinese songs with lyrics available for download, but it’s unique in that you can learn how to sing children’s songs in other foreign languages as well.
The site will allow you to pick songs from any country on any continent, so it would be wise to keep this site handy!
Song Example: “A Little School Boy – 读书郎” (dú shū láng) by Wang Li
13. Chinese Christian Radio
If you’re interested in finding religious songs in Chinese, a site that might pique your interest is Chinese Christian Radio by the Houston Broadcasters, Inc.
Although its site name might make you believe that you can only stream Chinese Christian music, you can also download some of their songs under a section titled “Download free music” located on their right sidebar.
Song to check out: “Jehovah is Worthy of Praise – 耶和華是應當稱頌的” (yē hé huá shì yìng dāng chēng sòng de) by KCHB Chinese Choir
14. Migu Music
On its website, Migu Music is described as being the music portal of China Mobile. In case you didn’t know, China Mobile is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications company that is the largest in the entire country of China. It provides mobile voice and other multimedia services (like Migu Music) through its mobile telecommunications network and was founded in 1997.
Almost any song can be found through Migu Music’s search engine and that’s not really an overstatement. There are reportedly over 3 million songs in its database, all of which are legitimate. Once found, they can be either streamed, downloaded or both.
Song to check out: “Goddess Does Not Speak – 女神不说话” (nǚ shén bù shuō huà) by Dewen
15. 360 Music
Not only is 360 Music very simple to use, but its song rankings are based on what’s popular in regions from all over the world, not just in China.
In addition, users can pick songs based on their moods, what genres they want to listen to, or even what scenery they want the music to fit into.
Song to check out: “Simple Happiness – 小幸運” (xiăo xìng yùn) by Hebe Tien 田馥甄 (tián fù zhēn)
Bonus Sites for Chinese Songs:
G-Music
This site unfortunately couldn’t be featured as part of the main list because not everything on this site is free. However, with G-Music, you can buy actual physical copies of all sorts of books, magazines, CDs and DVDs from around the globe in either a Chinese or Taiwanese language format.
As far as music is concerned, they even list annual sales charts of albums from the previous year based on Western charts, Mandarin charts and other charts from places all over the world. Because of this, G-Music gets an honorable mention.
Song to check out: “I Got You” by ICE MAN
Sing Chinese Songs
Like the name of the website suggests, Sing Chinese Songs is where viewers can listen to (and if they’re up for it, sing along to) Chinese songs. If you’d rather just stream songs instead of having to download each and every one, then bookmark this site.
Sometimes downloading things from the Internet (especially for free) can lead to trouble, so Sing Chinese Songs is great for when you just want to sing along to some Chinese tunes without having to worry about whether or not what you’re downloading is actually legal or if what you’re downloading is real or fake, some of which could even lead to viruses. (Don’t worry about the sites featured on this list though, as they are all completely safe and legit.)
Song to check out: “Longing – 渴望” (kĕ wàng) by Mao A Min 毛阿敏 (máo ā mĭn)
am1430
This site is unlike any other on this list.
am1430.com is the main site of the Chinese radio network program founded in Canada, which contains actual Chinese radio stations that stream songs consistently.
Sadly, you cannot download any music from this site. However, you can definitely use am1430 to expose yourself to various songs that you probably wouldn’t have found otherwise, and then use the sites listed above to find them and download.
Chances are, you’ll find what you’re looking for with at least one of them!
If you’re interested, here’s a schedule of the radio shows featured on this site.
Now that you have almost two dozen sites to stream and download music from, what are you waiting for? Start boosting your Chinese speaking and listening skills with some exciting Chinese tunes all for free.
Good luck, and have fun!
And One More Thing…
If you like learning with cool Chinese songs, then you’ll love FluentU.
FluentU lets you learn real Chinese from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.It naturally eases you into learning Chinese language. Native Chinese content comes within reach, and you’ll learn Chinese as it’s spoken in real life.
FluentU has a wide range of contemporary videos—like dramas, TV shows, commercials and music videos. In fact, below you’ll even see the song “Let It Go” from the hit movie “Frozen”:
FluentU brings these native Chinese videos within reach via interactive captions. You can tap on any word to instantly look it up. All words have carefully written definitions and examples that will help you understand how a word is used. Tap to add words you’d like to review to a vocab list.
FluentU’s Learn Mode turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
The best part is that FluentU always keeps track of your vocabulary. It suggests content and examples based on the words you’re learning. You have a 100% personalized experience.
Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or the Google Play store.
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn Chinese with real-world videos.