Ever since the inception of Napster over ten years ago, online and free music has been the pursuit of people everywhere. The rise and fall of various music-sharing sites and complicated legal battles has made the process of gaining unbridled access to all your heart’s content of music a difficult undertaking. Thankfully, the music industry is slowly warming up to free online music discovery, and below are great places to start when you want to hear your favorite song for free legally.
Free Music Online
There are a number of great sites for hearing free music online, but most limit your access to songs you own or offer random playlists of songs you may like. One site that rises above the rest in its ability to provide all the music you want is Grooveshark. The ad supported Grooveshark website offers full access to any song you can think of along with the ability to set up a playlist, skip ahead in songs, and listen to radio stations featuring music you like. Although you are not able to download music directly to your computer, you should find Grooveshark as a great way to access the music you want for free.
Free Music Discovery
Another type of useful online service is music discovery. Pandora is the most well know music discovery website and offers music lovers of all types the ability to create a custom radio station. To start, you just need to submit a song you like and Pandora plays similar music. Thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons then allow you to identify to the service what you really enjoy and the service can then better target new music for you to hear.
Mobile Access to Music
While free online music is slowly becoming a reality, the ability to access that music on the go has been significantly limited. Music discovery services are available though and come as apps on popular phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phones. Similar to Pandora, a service called Slacker offers a list of popular music styles to choose from in a radio format. If you are really desperate for an unlimited catalog on your phone then check out Rhapsody. While the service will set you back $10/month, you will be able to hear any song you want, whenever you want, and wherever you want.
- Check out the Pandora iPhone app for great recommendations.
- Check out the Slacker iPhone app for a variety of radio stations.
- Check out the Rhapsody iPhone app for unlimited music.
Any other services you recommend? Let others know in the comments below.
Best iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ
iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ
