Grooveshark

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Grooveshark

Monday, November 09, 2009

Free music is a fleeting thing. I mean, unless you turn on a radio, or something. But at that point you're better off engulfed in silence. The point is, here is a near perfect source of free music you can access anywhere you have the internet. Don't fear the shark.

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Brad
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Reviewed by Brad

Brad Cook

I know, ladies and gentlemen, that there has been many a-gimmick as far as a site where you can "listen to music for free". We've been burned a few times, and even though there have been some decent candidates (We Are Hunted), unsurprisingly we still have some trust issues when the word free is used in relation to music. But weep no more, fellow weary free-music deprived souls - Grooveshark will save us all.

Grooveshark is basically Google for music. Fundamentally, it's a music search engine, but it's also a social networking media center of sorts that you can access wherever you have internet access. You can sign up for an account, which is free, of course, that will give you access to a Library where you can add all your favorite songs, as well as a Favorites section to keep track of the others. Once you've searched a band or song, you can filter the results by Songs, Artists, Albums, Playlists, and People, where Playlists sorts user-created playlists related to your search that you can listen to, and People lists users that listen to what you listen to.

The social networking aspect of the site includes a People panel where you can see who you're following, your "fans", and "People I Might Like". You can even see fans of a band or a song, which makes for an easy way to find new music likely to interest you, based on the music you already listen to. It's also almost like a litmus test for music - test them out on GS, then get the album if you really like them. This is a good thing, trust me. Your friends will thank you when you put on something other than "Breakfast At Tiffany's" for the 5000th time.

Upon searching, a long list of songs will appear. Double-click a song to play it, click the plus to add it to current songs, or use the options off to the right - Favorite, Add To My Library, Share, Download (via Amazon mp3 or iTunes), and Download Ringtone, which seems to be pretty hit or miss as far as the existence of that song as a ringtone. But with all these options, it makes for some pretty efficient listenin'.

As free as this all is, there is a VIP option. This may seem like a catch, but all you have to deal with to use it for free is a insignificant ad on the right side of the page. The VIP option is $3 a month/$30 a year, which is pretty cheap, and comes with various upgraded features and the removal of the aforementioned ad. Even so, there's hardly a need for it, because it's so damn free already. They don't have everything, but it takes a pretty durn indie band to fool the shark. All you have to do is search and click, and the music's there for you. It's just like we've always dreamed.

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