Grooveshark :)

If you want to listen to music online, use Grooveshark.

I would like to share with you my nearly half a decade long quest to find the perfect music source.  It has been a long a winding road for me to get to Grooveshark.

The reason I bring this up is because we discussed peer-to-peer sharing today in class.   Dr. Zappala used Napster as an example of the evolution of peer-to-peer sharing. Napster still had a central server but facilitated platform where people could easily connect with one another and share music back and forth.



My first goldmine in the free music realm, after Napster got shut down -Moment of silence- I found during my freshmen year of college. It was Launch, through Yahoo! Launch is great and has a great selection of music videos. It also groups the top billboard songs and music videos organized so you can stay up to date. When I found out about Launch I was really into the Foo Fighters and found an awesome live performance of Everlong which I think is the best version I have heard of the song.

Another 'music jukebox' site is last.fm   When I found out about last.fm I was ecstatic to listen to my favorite band at the time, Kings of Leon (Listen to their new album here). Some of my favorite songs are Closer, Somebody and Radioactive. Lastfm was like manna from heaven until I hit song 5 and it wouldn't let me play anymore.

 Then I was introduced to Pandora. Wow! What a revolutionary concept!  A music station that recognizes the type of music you like and offers recommendations for you. How much better could life get? Well, being able to pick your own songs would help... The music I was listening to during my Pandora phase was Rilo Kiley as well as Tegan and Sara.

Next stop on our musical journey is Rhapsody. Limitless music for a fee. This was made possible by my roommates at the time that were conscious of copyright laws and wanted high quality music they could put in play lists for techno dance parties. Rhapsody was great but I couldn't justify the monthly subscription on my college budget. I am however thankful to Rhapsody for introducing me to Ratatat and Asher Roth, and Kid Cudi.

After all these, the website that stands triumphant for me is, Grooveshark. It has all the best elements of all the others all combined in one visually appealing package.  Grooveshark uses a proprietary Peer-to-Peer system facilitated by a down loadable client application. Grooveshark doesn't have a limit on the number of songs you can listen to. It doesn't have a paid subscription and you can listen to the songs you want, when you want. Thank you Grooveshark!

I am always on the search for new music and would appreciate some new recommendations. Any suggestions?