The Best Online Music Sources

The best tools and sites for free streaming music.

In this article I’d like to list some of the best music sources on the Web. The number of sites that offer streaming music has really exploded in recent years – as the online music revolution is unfolding with lightening speed. It is easier than ever to start your own radio station. Quantity does not equal quality so to say, but I found some really cool sites and tools.

But rather than being an exhaustive list (creating such a list would be a daunting and sheer impossible task), the list illustrates the various ways streaming music is made available. You may know some of the sites and tools already. Others may be new to you. Anyway, if you know a cool site or tool for free streaming music, feel free to contribute by leaving a comment.

Streaming music comes in various flavors. You have the online radio stations where you just tune in and out like a convential radio station. Then there are the on demand music sites where you simply search for songs and play them when and in the order you like. Also, you can distinguish between visiting the station’s actual website or accessing online music through a dedicated music player (that you have to install on your computer) or online directory of stations. Some sites show advertisements, others don’t. Some require payment whereas others (most) don’t.

www.grooveshark.com

Grooveshark is an internationally available free music search and recommendation website. Users can search, stream, upload and share music. Songs can be played immediately or be added to a playlist. As such, Grooveshark is an on demand music service, but they have a really cool ‘radio’ feature. This is actually not an online radio station, but a recommendation system that streams music according to your music taste. For example, if I start a playlist with trance songs, then pressing the radio button will make Grooveshark stream one (trance) song after another to me. While listening I can cast a vote (whether i like the song or not). Also, I can add the song to one of my playlists.

 

 

I found Grooveshark to be one of the coolest and easiest sites for on demand music. The interface is very user friendly. Your favourite songs are very easy to find and you have created your first playlist in a matter of minutes. And then you just press the radio button and sit back and relax. And if you want to download (buy) the music there is an easy link to either Amazon or iTunes.

Also, you can search (and connec to) other people, play their playlists, etc.

www.shoutcast.com

Shoutcast is not a radio station or a website that offers on demand music. It is a directory of shoutcast servers. Shoutcast is the cross-platform software for streaming music over the internet and enables the creation of internet radio stations.

Shoutcast is so interesting because it gives you access to a huge number of stations (more that 40,000) via a single web interface. Actually, some of the stations I mention further down this list can be accessed and streamed directly from Shoutcast (somafm and pulsradio).

 

 

What I also like about Shoutcast is the fact that they list the number of listeners (you can sort on that). Also, the search function is simple and fast.

www.somafm.com

Somafm is a classic internet radio station. It is quite unique in that it is a listener supported broadcaster. Based in San Fransisco they offer 19 channels of commercial free, underground/alternative radio.

 

 

I really recommend that you visit this website. Alternatively, find them on Shoutcast via this link: http://www.shoutcast.com/Internet-Radio/somafm

www.radiosure.com

RadioSure is neither an on demand music site nor a radio station. Instead it is a free dedicated music application that allows you to search for and stream radio stations (they say there are more than 12,000). What makes this application special is that you can record the streams directly to MP3 files, neatly split up by station and song. It really works remarkably well. You simply tune in to your favourite station and press the record button. Come back 4 hours later and you have your harddisk full of MP3’s.

 

 

From their website you can download and install skins to give your RadioSure player a fresh new interface.

www.meemix.com

You all know the ‘hot or not’ rating system right? Those where you can rate pictures of people on – let’s say – a scale from 1 to 10. Meemix is similar in a way, but here you cast your ‘hot or not’ vote for the streaming music.

It is an interesting concept. What Meemix allows you to do is create one or more channels – e.g. based on music style. They then start streaming music. Your ‘hot or not’ votes are constantly used to adjust the music that is streamed. You can also affect the music by adjusting a few parameters, such as ‘pulse’ (relaxing music or party time beats), ‘atmosphere’ (from dark to light) and ‘surprise me’ (the higher you set this the more suprises Meemix throws into the mix).

 

In this way you really create your own personal radio station that only streams music according to your personal taste. Sites like Grooveshark have similar features of course, but Meemix has given it a nice twist. The site’s whole community network feature is centered around these user created channels. In other words, people can subscribe to eachother’s channels. This means that Meemix has a large selection of channels to choose from – for every taste.

As far as my personal taste is concerned, the interface is a little too much Nintendo Wii-like for me. But I am sure Meemix will appeal to some people.

www.pulsradio.com

Pulsradio is a non stop Dance and Trance site. It’s french, but I really enjoy listening to it. Rather than visiting the site, I usually access it through Shoutcast here: http://www.shoutcast.com/Internet-Radio/pulsradio

 

 

 

Alternatively you can download (and install) a dedicated music player: http://www.pulsradio.com/pulsplayer.exe

Other populare sites

Rather than describing all stations one by one, here’s a list with some other popular music sites:

www.last.fm – popular site centered around bands/artists and fans. You can create a libraries, playlists, connect with friends, join groups, check out people with similar music tastes, etc.

www.spotify.com – only available in select countries

www.pandora.com – only available in the US.

 

Conclusion

As I said in the introduction, the online music revolution is unfolding with lightening speed. There is so much music available in so many different ways. And the landscape changes constantly. Who knows where we are in just five years from now?

Again, rather than providing an exhaustive list of stations, I hope this article is interesting for some of you. At least I hope it shows what is available on the Web as we speak.

I am absolutely sure I have missed some things here. So, if you think ‘hey dude..how could you have missed this and that station, site or tool’ then please leave me a comment.

 

Thanks for reading! It was not the usual FL Studio tutorial this time, but more of those later.

Category: Article, feature, Free music