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Today’s public library gives you access to much more than just books and magazines. Your library card may grant you free and legal access to streaming movies, television shows, and music.
While there are plenty of websites and apps streaming free movies and music, most platforms make money through advertising. The services featured in this article, however, are available through public libraries for free and (crucially) are free of advertising.
How to Stream Entertainment From Your Local Library
In most cases, signing up for these platforms is easy if you are a cardholder of one of the participating libraries. Just visit your library’s website or download its app. Look for digital resources and follow the link to the service you want.
You usually log on to these sites or apps by first identifying your library and then signing in with your library card number. Some platforms may prompt you to set your password.
The larger platforms often allow you to stack library cards for a higher streaming or download limit. These limits vary depending on your library’s subscription level. Public libraries pay for digital rights on behalf of their patrons, usually from the same budget as the physical books, CDs, and DVDs in your library’s collection.
If you don’t have a library card, visit a local branch of your public library to sign up for one. Some libraries also let you register for a library card online. While we’ve linked to these services below, you may need to visit them through the link provided by your library for full access to the content they offer.
Music fans can legally download and keep music and music videos through Freegal Music. That is if your library subscribes to Freegal. The music downloads are free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions and available for your personal and non-commercial use.
In addition, Freegal Music is also an ad-free music streaming service. Your streaming and downloads may be capped depending on your library’s subscription.
If your library supports downloads, you can permanently save these songs to your computer or phone’s music library for unlimited, offline listening. In addition to music files, you can also stream or download music videos. If you choose to download a music video, it counts as two downloads from your weekly allowance.
Freegal also contains full albums and curated playlists for different activities, such as workouts. It is set up both for searching the catalog for your favorite songs and artists or browsing to explore different types of music.
According to Freegal, its catalog has around 15 million songs and over 40,000 music videos, including many from Sony Music’s catalog. The catalog frequently changes, with new music added or removed from the platform weekly.
Freegal offers a web app, as well as apps on the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store, and the Kindle Store.
If you are an avid eBook reader or audiobook listener, you may already be familiar with Hoopla as a place to borrow free books, comic books, and audiobooks. But Hoopla isn’t just for readers; Hoopla also lets you stream music, films, and TV shows.
The Hoopla app also allows you to easily toggle between adult and kid mode, which is handy if you ever let a child watch a video you borrowed from Hoopla using your phone or tablet.
In addition to Hoopla’s in-house content library, you can check out a “BingePass” which counts as one borrowed item. A BingePass is seven-day guest access to a content partner like CuriosityStream or Great Courses. A BingePass is different from a free trial since you may borrow the same BingePass more than once. So anytime you fancy binge-watching documentaries, you can check out a BingePass for CuriosityStream or Great Courses.
Hoopla’s apps are available on the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store, and the Kindle Store. In addition, Hoopla has streaming channels available on Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Chromecast devices.
Kanopy is one of the most common library streaming services. It is currently available through 4,000 libraries in 200 different countries. Using Kanopy, you can stream movies, documentaries, children’s programming, and other TV shows. The films include a mix of classic, recent award winners, international, and independent films.
When you stream using Kanopy, “play credits” are the currency used to determine how many programs you may access each month. Your library pays for the rights to each program streamed, so most libraries give each patron a monthly allowance of play credits.
Some content is “play credit free” including Great Courses, Kanopy Kids, and other videos designated as credit-free viewing. Any available credit-free programs are listed on your Kanopy dashboard homepage.
Kanopy Kids is the child-friendly version focused on children aged between 2- and 8-years-old. It features Sesame Street and other educational shows. To access it, you toggle between Kanopy and Kanopy Kids within the app.
You can link multiple library cards within one Kanopy account to accumulate your play credits allowance for each library.
Kanopy is available through the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store, and the Kindle App Store. In addition, it supports streaming channels for Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Roku, Chromecast, and Telstra TV.
eBook and audiobook borrowers are probably already familiar with OverDrive’s book app Libby. OverDrive has the largest catalog of library media, including eBooks, audiobooks, graphic novels, music, and video content. It has also acquired Kanopy, but some libraries stream their digital videos through OverDrive.
If your local library uses OverDrive to loan streaming or downloadable films and shows, you can access it through your library’s website. The films and shows vary by the library but may include a mix of comedy, drama, action, and kids’ feature films. If you are not sure where to look, try your library’s website.
Alexander Street Publishing is more of a niche video and music service than the others already listed in this article.
If you want to branch out and try to listen to something a little different, then Alexander Street Press has you covered. The exact content varies depending on which databases your library subscribes to. These include popular music, dance, opera, classical music, world music, jazz, the Smithsonian Global Sound, and archived newsreels.
Alexander Street’s library resources include video performances, streaming music, and audiobooks or podcasts. The core focus is primary source media, so much of the content has an educational, historical, or cultural archive leaning.
While streaming services offered by your public library are unlikely to replace your Netflix or Disney+ subscription, you can still save money using your library account to stream free movies, TV shows, and music.
And if you don’t find anything worth streaming through your public library, there are plenty of other free, ad-supported streaming services available.
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