Streaming music services like Apple Music and Spotify are becoming increasingly popular. However, if you have a ton of music stored in your Dropbox account and would prefer a free alternative, then the answer is Jukebox.

Jukebox is a free iOS app that becomes your offline music player for audio files in your Dropbox.

Moving your music files from Dropbox to Jukebox

1. Download and install the Jukebox app from the iTunes store.
2. Make sure you have the Dropbox app installed on your device, or download it from the iTunes store.
3. Allow the Jukebox app to connect with your Dropbox account.
4. Jukebox will scan your Dropbox account for all audio files.
5. The app will then prompt you to select which audio files to download for offline listening. Complete this step on a Wi-Fi network and you can save on your cellular data usage.
6. Once Jukebox has downloaded the audio files, you can browse your music collection via artist, song, and album or use the search functionality to find a specific song. The Jukebox app also allows you to create playlists.
7. Simply, tap the song you want to play and the Jukebox music player will take over. Set songs to play on repeat or shuffle. As Jukebox saves the files offline, rather than streaming them from an online source, you get to save on your monthly data usage.

Rather than playing the music file directly from Dropbox, Jukebox downloads it, which means that once the app has downloaded a specific music file you can delete it from your Dropbox account and free up valuable space.

Whenever you add new music to your Dropbox account, go to Jukebox’s settings and follow the steps above (Jukebox will scan your Dropbox account, you then select which music files to download) to ensure your latest downloads are available on Jukebox.

Not only is the Jukebox app free, but it is also ad-free. An offering that its developer promises to keep forever.

Jukebox is compatible with your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The app currently needs your device to be running iOS 9.2 or later, but the Jukebox developers are rectifying this and are waiting for approval of the next version of the app from Apple, according to Jukebox developer James Zhang.

The next version of Jukebox will also provide users with the ability to select or unselect songs by folder and a private sharing feature so you can share a specific song with a friend through a text link.

Image credit: Sascha Kohlmann, Flickr