Listening to music together is one of the best social activities. Topics for discussion might center on lyrics, instrumentation, or artist back catalogs. But how can you listen to songs together when your music-loving pals live far away?

Thanks to the apps listed below, it’s easy to listen to music with friends at the same time, even if you aren’t together. The only requirement for most of these apps is that you have access to a music streaming service, such as Spotify Premium or Apple Music. Other than that, all of them are totally free to use.

Want to listen to songs together? Check out these services to listen to music with friends far away.

1. Spotify

There’s a good chance you already use Spotify to listen to music, which makes it the best choice for most people looking to listen to songs with their friends or family. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Spotify introduced Group Sessions to allow people to enjoy music together, no matter how far away they are.

Spotify Group Sessions can support up to seven listeners, but everyone needs to have Spotify Premium. This feature is also only available on the mobile and tablet apps.

To start a Group Session, all you need to do is start playing a song, then tap the Device button in the bottom-left and hit Start Session. From there, Invite Friends to your session by sharing a link or a session code.

Download: Spotify for iOS | Android (Free, subscription available)

2. Apple SharePlay

Two hands in different locations hold up iPhones using SharePlay on the same FaceTime call

With the release of SharePlay in iOS 15, Apple made it possible to share music or videos with your friends over a FaceTime call. This feature works with Apple Music or Spotify, and all you need to do is start playing some music from one of those apps when you’re on a FaceTime call. For Spotify users, this will actually start a Spotify Group Session.

Alternatively, you can tap and hold a song in the Apple Music app and hit the SharePlay option. From here, choose who you want to listen to the song with, and your device will launch a FaceTime call with that person using SharePlay. This is also a great way to enjoy movies together online using FaceTime calls.

Download: FaceTime for iOS (Free)

3. EarBuds

EarBuds homepage in Google Chrome

Earbuds allows you to create and share playlists with your friends on Apple Music or Spotify Premium in a fun and collaborative way.

Here's how it works: You can join or create public or private groups, depending on whether you want to share your playlist with the world or keep it exclusive to your close circle. As you share songs in the group chats, they will automatically be added to a new playlist.

To make it even more exciting, each playlist can be given a unique title, so your friends will know exactly what kind of activities you enjoy while listening to the music. You can share a link to your live stream with friends, making it easy for everyone to join in and listen together.

At the time of writing, EarBuds is available only in the US and Canada.

Download: EarBuds for iOS (Free)

4. we:fm

Only available for iOS users, we:fm lets you listen to music at the same time as other friends using the app. Like most of the other apps, it only works with Spotify Premium. Once you connect your music streaming account, you can then connect to Facebook and find other friends on we:fm. Then you can broadcast music for friends to tune in and chat about the songs you’re listening to together.

If you don’t want to listen live, start a new chat within we:fm to share songs with friends for them to listen to later. Or turn on private mode so you can keep listening to those show tunes without worrying about others judging you.

Download: we:fm for iOS (Free)

5. Quorus

Quorus lets you listen to music together as a collaborative process with your friends. Unleash your inner DJ and launch a live session to stream the music you’re listening to, then invite friends to join in and listen with you.

Choose how many people are allowed to contribute songs to your session, letting your friends add their own flavor to the playlist. You can even password-protect your stream or make it private to get more control over who can join in. It’s easy to join other people’s ongoing live sessions, too. You might even make some brand-new friends by using this app to listen to music together.

While Quorus supports the free Spotify version, it works best with a Spotify premium subscription. However, with Spotify getting expensive, we recommend that you only go ahead if your budget allows you to.

Download: Quorus for iOS | Android (Free)

6. Odesli

Odesli homepage in Chrome

Odesli, also known as Songlink, is a little different from the other apps on this list. Rather than being an app designed to let you listen to music at the same time as your friends, Odesli is a web service that makes it easier to share songs across multiple platforms.

Geared toward musicians wanting to share tracks with fans, Odesli creates a page for each song with links to that song on every music platform. This includes Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and more.

Find a shareable track by typing terms into the search box, then send the link to your friends. Now they can easily listen to the same music as you, even if you both listen to music on different platforms.

You Can Always Listen to Music Online for Free Instead

As you can see, there are lots of different apps and services you can use to listen to music together with friends, even when you’re far away from each other. But you may have noticed that all these options depend on using a music streaming service.

Luckily, you’ve got some alternative options if you want to listen to music online without a streaming subscription. These options don’t usually let you listen to music together with other people, though.