These days, you can do almost anything online for free and that includes listening to your favorite songs without paying a single cent. Below we have listed the top 5 sites you can listen and groove to your favorite track for free (well, almost all). Check it out: -
Grooveshark (http://listen.grooveshark.com/)
Grooveshark is one of the best places to listen to music online for free. There are millions of songs in their collection. The only downside is there will be a 160×600px banner ad which will keep showing you ads (which can be removed at $3/mo). On the other hand, you don’t have to look at the screen once you have added all the songs you want to listen to the queue. You can even save those songs to a playlist and embed the playlist to your iGoogle, Blogger, MySpace, Hi5, Typepad, Wordpress, Orkut and so on.
Pros: Million of songs, Fast and smooth streaming, Ability to save playlist and embed the playlist as widgets to social networking sites and blogs.
Cons: No continuous play.
Jango (www.jango.com/)
Jango used to be my favorite music site until recently where it started to collaborate with Rhapsody. Unlike Grooveshark, Jango limits the number of songs you are able to listen to although they list down all the songs from an artist. And if you are lucky, you may be able to listen to your favorite track by your favorite artist.
Pros: A huge collection of songs, Pretty good streaming most of the time, Continuous play according to your what you have previously searched.
Cons: Only selected tracks are available for streaming randomly.
Napster (http://free.napster.com/)
Napster, these days is your source of legal music. There is a free section on Napster where you can stream your favorite music for free. But in order to listen to full length tracks, you must reside in the US. Otherwise, you’ll only be able to listen to your favorite track for only 30 seconds.
Pros: A huge collection of songs.
Cons: Only available to the US residents (others can only listen to a 30-second snippets). Even so users can only listen to any particular song up to three times, after which the users will need to subscribe to Napster or purchase the song to play it in full again.
Last FM (www.last.fm)
Last FM is one of the most popular music sites around with the ability to recommend you tracks based on what you listen to — the more you listen, the more Last FM will learn about you and the more personalized your radio station will become. However, like Napster, there is a limitation. For users living outside US, UK and Germany, you only get to listen to the radio for 30 days for free, which afterwards, you must subscribe to continue. For users in the US, UK and Germany, you can listen to Last FM for free with the exception of subscription premium radio features: listening to playlists and stations of music you’ve loved or tagged.
Pros: A huge collection of songs, Personalized radio, Ability to download a scrobbler and listen without login to the browser, Ability to listen on your iPod, Selected MP3’s available for download for free.
Cons: Available only to residents of US, UK and Germany whereas others can only listen for free for 30 days.
YouTube (www.youtube.com/
Although YouTube is a video streaming site, there are millions of music videos available in YouTube. With the playlist, you can add all your favorite tracks into one place and let it run in the background, and voila, your own jukebox with videos!
Pros: A huge collection of songs (music videos), Can watch the music videos while listening to your favorite tracks.
Cons: Slower streaming, Not available in some countries, i.e. China.
Honorable mentions: VH1 Radio, Yahoo! Music, MySpace.
Popularity: 1%
