Best Cloud Storage for Music in 2023: Cloud Music Storage Done Right
If you haven’t converted to Spotify yet, chances are you need a place to store your music files. The best cloud storage for music lets you access your songs directly from the cloud and helps you manage your music library.
— Last Updated: 2023-05-22T06:27:59+00:00 Facts checked by Jasna Mishevska
Compared to other types of media like videos or photos, music and audio files get relatively little attention from many cloud storage services. Ideally, the best cloud storage for music should have an integrated audio player, support for music metadata and tools to help organize your library.
Key Takeaways:
- Besides general criteria, the most important things to look for when considering cloud storage options for your music collection are integrated audio players and music library management.
- Dropbox, pCloud and Icedrive are the best cloud storage solutions for music, due to their integrated audio players.
- Google Drive has support for third-party audio players as well as file conversion software. Meanwhile, Sync.com is the best overall cloud storage and comes with built-in music player on mobile apps.
Unfortunately, when looking for a cloud storage provider for music, you’re left with relatively slim pickings. Outside of mobile apps, only a few offer any kind of functionality for audio files at all, and none manage to tick all of the boxes simultaneously.
This probably has a lot to do with the fact that, compared to other types of media, far more people have converted to streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube Premium or Apple Music, and no longer need audio file functionality.
Still, there are some out there who prefer to truly own their music, not to mention all the people who create music and don’t have the space to store large, uncompressed files.
-
10/13/2022 Facts checked
Updated list for 2022 and rearranged the options to better reflect features.
Yes, Google Drive is a great place to store music, due to its large amount of free storage and built-in integrations with audio players and file conversion software.
Dropbox is the best cloud storage service to store music or audio files on, due to its feature-packed audio player. pCloud and Icedrive also offer native audio players, and Google Drive integrates directly with CloudConvert.
How much you can store depends entirely on how much cloud storage you’re paying for. MP3 songs range in file size from 2MB to 10MB depending on the quality and length, so if you have 1TB of cloud storage you can probably store between 100,000 and 500,000 songs.
Top Cloud Storage Services for Music
- 1
- :
- :
- :
- :
- 2
- :
- :
- :
- :
- 3
- :
- :
- :
- :
- 4
- :
- :
- :
- :
- 5
- :
- :
- :
- :
What Makes the Best Cloud Storage for Music
Aside from the standard criteria we always use when judging cloud storage (features, price, security, etc.), for this list we’ve specifically selected services that offer some sort of built-in music player, or at the very least some organization features that make it easier to manage your audio files.
A large free plan is another huge benefit, so that regardless of the size of your music library, it’s feasible to store all your audio files online without paying anything at all. All that said, here are our top five choices for storing music and other audio files on the cloud.
- Dropbox — Cloud storage with the most advanced audio file features
- pCloud — Secure and affordable cloud storage with built-in music player
- Icedrive — Well–designed and affordable cloud storage with 10GB of free storage and a native music player
- Google Drive — 15GB of free storage and integrations with music players and file conversion software
- Sync.com — Best overall cloud storage with built-in music player on mobile apps
The clear winner in terms of functionality specifically for music and audio files is Dropbox. It offers a built-in audio player with tons of functionality that even includes collaboration features.
Next is pCloud, which also offers a feature-packed music player both through its web interface and mobile apps. Icedrive does something similar, though it’s not as advanced. Google Drive doesn’t offer anything to play music natively, but comes with default integrations that serve the same purpose.
Finally, both Sync.com (our fifth suggestion) and MEGA (our honorable mention) offer music players through their mobile apps. Unfortunately, neither of them lets you play music files directly from their web interfaces, but they’re still excellent cloud storage options in general.
The 5 Best Cloud Storage for Music
Now that we’ve got the criteria out of the way, let’s dig into our list of the best cloud storage services for music, starting with Dropbox.
1. Dropbox
More details about Dropbox:
- Pricing: 2GB free, 2TB for $9.99 per month (one-year plan)
- Provider website: dropbox.com
Pros:
- Dropbox Replay
- Built-in audio player
- Office 365 & Google Workspace
Cons:
- Limited plan options
- Tiny free plan
- Privacy concerns
Where most cloud storage solutions ignore audio files entirely, or at best provide a rudimentary music player, Dropbox goes the whole nine yards. Although it’s still in beta, the service offers something called Dropbox Replay, which not only lets you play audio files without downloading them first, but also enables the collaboration and sharing of the files themselves.
When you open an audio file in Dropbox, the first thing you’ll see is the regular audio player that includes a visualizer as well as the option to change the playback speed. There’s also an option for basic sharing and commenting, as well as an option to connect third-party apps such as WeVideo, which you can use to edit the file.
However, you’ll also be asked whether you want to open it in Dropbox Replay. When you do, you’ll see a similar audio player, but this time with a comment section on the right-hand side.
Here you can click anywhere on the visualizer, select a section of the audio and leave comments for that section specifically. You can also tag the entire file with labels like “needs review” or “in review.” There’s also a version control menu in the top-left corner, which gives you easy access to past versions of the audio file.
Finally, you can start a “live review” of the file or project you’re working on, which creates a link you can send to others that will let them see you work on the file in real time.
Save Space With Dropbox Smart Sync
If you don’t want your music collection or work files taking up any space on your hard drive, but still want to be able to access the files through file explorer or finder, Dropbox’s smart sync feature accomplishes just that.
Smart sync lets you select files that should only be stored on the cloud, and as long as you’re connected to the internet, they’ll still appear in your folders the same way local files do.
Dropbox doesn’t offer a lot of different plans for you to choose from. There’s the stingy 2GB free plan, and then three paid plans. The main difference between them isn’t how much storage you get, but rather who the plan is intended for. The Personal and Family plans both provide 2TB of storage for $9.99 and $16.99 per month respectively if you opt for the yearly billing.
If you do need a little more storage, the Professional plan ups the quota slightly to 5TB, but it costs almost as much as the Family plan at $15 when paid annually.
- 1 user
- 2GB
- 1 user
- 2TB
- 1 user
- 2TB
- 1 user
- 3TB
- 3 users minimum
- 5TB
- 3 users minimum
2. pCloud
More details about pCloud:
- Pricing: 10GB free, 2TB for $9.99 per month (one-month plan)
- Provider website: pcloud.com
Pros:
- Built-in music player
- Cheap prices
- Great security & privacy
Cons:
- Only 10GB free storage
- Zero-knowledge costs extra
pCloud often makes it to the top two in our cloud storage lists, which has a lot to do with its excellent security and privacy, as well as its affordable plans. In this context though, pCloud really shines with its integrated music player. Unlike some of the other options on this list, the music player is available both on the mobile apps and through its web interface.
Besides offering basic playback functionality, the music player also identifies all other audio files in the folder and presents them as a playlist. You can rearrange and remove songs from the playlist, as well as save it so that you can load it up later. There’s also support for shuffle and automatically repeating the playlist or song.
Save Images With pCloud Save
If you often find yourself downloading media content (whether that’s images, videos or audio) when browsing the web, pCloud’s browser extension called “pCloud save” can save you a lot of time and help you organize your downloads.
This lets you right-click any media element on a website in your browser and store it in a dedicated folder, which avoids cluttering your downloads folder.
One of the best things about pCloud is its price. Besides its free plan, which you can easily bring up to 10GB of storage, pCloud offers a 2TB for $9.99 per month (one-month plan). Unfortunately, there’s no monthly option for the personal plans, but it does offer a 10-day money-back guarantee if you regret your purchase.
- 10GB
- 500GB
- 2TB
- 2TB
- 10TB
- Price per user (minimum 3)
- 1TB
- Price per user (minimum 3)
- Unlimited GB
- Encryption for pCloud Drive
3. Icedrive
More details about Icedrive:
- Pricing: 10GB free, 1TB for $4.17 per month (one-year plan)
- Provider website: icedrive.net
Pros:
- Gorgeous design
- Built-in audio player
- Affordable plans
Cons:
- Bad for collaboration
- Zero-knowledge on paid plan
Like Dropbox and pCloud, Icedrive has a built-in music player in its web interface and mobile apps. It’s even included in the desktop application, though we have to imagine at that point most people prefer to use a separate audio player to play music.
It’s also not as advanced as either of the two storage space suggestions we’ve already talked about, as all it does beyond basic playback functionality is give you the option to adjust the speed.
Other than the audio player, Icedrive shares a lot of other strengths with pCloud. The security and privacy is excellent, and this time you don’t have to pay extra for zero-knowledge encryption (though you do have to sign up for a paid plan). Learn more in our full Icedrive review.
Icedrive’s Well-Designed Interface
A sleek and easy-to-use design is beneficial if you want to organize your music collection. Unlike a lot of other cloud storage services that feature dated designs and desktop clients relegated to the system tray, Icedrive has a fully modern design that’s consistent across all platforms.
Icedrive offers a fairly generous 10GB of free storage, but it’s with its paid plans that it truly stands out. The best offer is probably the 1TB plan, which costs $4.17 per month or $49.99 per year.
- Bandwidth limit: 3GB
- 10GB
- Bandwidth limit: 250GB
- 150GB
- Bandwidth limit: 2TB
- 1TB
- Bandwidth limit: 8TB
- 5TB
- 3TB
- 10TB
4. Google Drive
More details about Google Drive:
- Pricing: 15GB free, 2TB for $8.33 per month (one-year plan)
- Provider website: google.com/drive/
Pros:
- 15GB free storage
- Built-in audio player & file conversion
- Excellent for collaboration
Cons:
- Terrible privacy
- No passwords for file sharing
Google Drive doesn’t offer an audio player of its own, but it comes pretty close. Whenever you open an audio file in Google Drive, you have the option of adding third-party apps that integrate directly with the service. By default, these include a feature-rich audio player that’s compatible with MP3, FLAC and AAC audio files.
Moreover, another default integration is CloudConvert, which allows you to convert your audio files from whatever format they’re in to almost any other. Google Drive also used to have a music plugin called Google Play Music, but this product has since been replaced with YouTube Music, which doesn’t interact with Google Drive in any way.
Collaborate in Real Time With Google Drive
By far, Google Drive’s greatest strength is its integration with the wider Google Workspace ecosystem. This includes document and collaboration apps like Google Docs and Google Sheets, but also the extension store, where you can find plenty of third-party apps that work with audio and music files. Read our Google Drive review to learn more.
With 15GB of storage, Google Drive’s free plan is the second most generous on this list. More than that, its paid plans are very affordable, starting at $1.99 for 100GB up to an enormous 30TB for $149.99 per month.
- Free plan
- 15GB
- 10TB
- 20TB
- 30TB
5. Sync.com
More details about Sync.com:
- Pricing: 5GB free, 6TB for $24 per month (one-month plan)
- Provider website: sync.com
Pros:
- Top-notch security & privacy
- Paid plans offer great value
- Audio player for mobile apps
Cons:
- No audio player in PC app
- Mediocre speeds
Sync.com is usually in the top spot when we compare cloud storage services, but in this case it doesn’t offer a whole lot in terms of features for audio or music files. There’s an audio player included in the mobile apps, but this is basically built into mobile operating systems anyway, which is why virtually every cloud storage service offers it as part of their app.
That said, as you can see from our Sync.com review, it’s still a fantastic cloud storage service. It has an impeccable record with both security and privacy, and its 6TB plan offers better value than anything else on this list.
Privacy and Collaboration at the Same Time
Perhaps one of the most impressive things about Sync.com is that it manages to include integration with Office 365, despite featuring zero-knowledge encryption for all files stored on its servers. Generally, providers that offer private encryption tend to neglect things like collaboration, as the strict encryption makes this type of integration difficult.
As mentioned, Sync.com is an excellent value on its paid plans. Although its 5GB free plan isn’t particularly impressive, 6TB for just $24 per month is. Unfortunately, there’s no monthly billing, but Sync.com provides a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re dissatisfied after signing up.
- 5GB
- 2TB
- 6TB
- Price per user
- 1TB
- Price per user
- Unlimited GB
Honorable Mention: MEGA
More details about MEGA:
- Pricing: 20GB (expandable to 35GB for one year) free, 2TB for roughly $9.06 per month (one-year plan)
- Provider website: mega.io
Pros:
- Lots of free storage
- File-type filtering on mobile
- Great security & privacy
Cons:
- Unpredictable pricing
- Poor customer support
- Bad for collaboration
Finally, we have MEGA, another provider that doesn’t do a whole lot in terms of audio or music files specifically. Like every other provider, it has a built-in player on its mobile apps, but there’s nothing for desktop or the web client. There’s also an option on mobile to filter files by general file types, like photos, videos and audio, which is nice for organization, if still pretty basic.
Beyond music and audio capabilities, MEGA is a capable cloud storage service. It’s long billed itself as the “privacy company,” and despite a checkered past with Kim Dotcom and MegaUpload, as well as a recent scandal involving its encryption model, this moniker has largely held true.
MEGA’s Enormous Free Plan
Although audio files aren’t as large as video, they can still take up quite a bit of space. With average file sizes for your typical MP3 song ranging from 2MB to 10MB — depending on the quality — MEGA’s generous 20GB of free storage space is incredibly useful when it comes to storing your music on the cloud, allowing you to store between 2,000 and 10,000 songs.
MEGA’s free plan draws a lot of attention, but its paid plans can also be a very good deal, depending on the exchange rate between the euro and your local currency whenever you sign up. The paid plans increase in value as they increase in size, and at the time of writing, the 2TB plan costs roughly $9.06 per month when billed annually.
- 20GB
- File transfer: 2TB (Monthly plan) 24TB (yearly plan)
- 2TB
- File transfer: (monthly plan) 96TB (yearly plan)
- 8TB
- File transfer: 16TB (monthly plan) 192TB (yearly plan)
- 16TB
- Price per user (minimum 3)
- Unlimited GB
Final Thoughts: Cloud Storage for Music
With that, we’ve come to the end of our list. Dropbox clearly stands out for its ability to not only play audio files, but also facilitate sharing and collaboration. Other than Dropbox, the best choice for pure audio or music consumption is either pCloud or Icedrive, thanks to their integrated audio players.
Music producers or anyone else who makes their own music or works with a lot of audio files might be most impressed with Google Drive because of its integration with CloudConvert. Sync.com, on the other hand, is a great choice to store all your files on the cloud, even if it doesn’t do much for music specifically.
Finally, MEGA is ideal for those looking for more space without paying a dime, especially useful if you have a large collection of music and you don’t want to pay to store it securely.
What did you think of our list of the best cloud storage for music? Do you agree with our picks, or did we miss one that you think deserves the spotlight? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, thank you for reading.
