Updated: February 21, 2011
Online music streaming websites are not easy to find. Or rather, they are very easy to find. However, finding high-quality content that really caters to your needs, presented in a simple and friendly manner, backed up by nifty tricks that enhance the experience and a powerful search, plus the recommendations and sorting and listing and whatnot, all of these are not easy to find.
Grooveshark came to me after I saw a rather pretty and inviting interface in a friend's browser. Intrigued, I asked about this website, and very soon, I was streaming tons of excellent music. Not only was I enjoying myself, the music choice and search hits were spot on. I'm not a great man of music, by I was really impressed. Hence, a humble tribute in the form of a review.
Grooveshark - Get ready to get blazed
The main interface is normally light blue, but for the duration of New Year holidays, it was specially decorated. The service is self-explanatory and quite intuitive. Just search for whatever you like.
This will switch you into a media player like interface, complete with drag & drop functionality, inline search, plus some advanced features, like the ability to tag songs as your favorites, add them to playlists, and more.
Your collections:
Working with Grooveshark is simple and easy. The service is very elegant. You will like how it behaves, including the notifications. All of it happens inside a browser tab, which makes it all the cooler.
The songs can also be sorted by genre, title, name, or year. The search works while you're playing a list and will not interrupt your music. Ajax thingie.
Grooveshark in action:
Looks great and works great. But the real power of Grooveshark is the collection of music. For instance, Chase by Giorgio Moroder or Wild Cats of Killkenny by The Pogues, not an obvious choice. You will be hard-pressed to find these elsewhere, yet Grooveshark handles rare, odd, weird, and special titles just as easily as the mass junk.
Extras
You can also upload music, which is another great feature. And if you're willing to subscribe to the VIP service, you will enjoy extra few benefits. You will be able to save your playlists and favorites across the browsing sessions, join the community, personalize the interface, be able to download songs from last.fm, cross-fade songs, and more.
Personally, I think this is a very wise investment.
Conclusion
Grooveshark is an amazing online radio and music service. It's one of many, but what makes it special is that you actually get to listen to the content you want. No nagware, no boring advertisements in between, no clunky and useless searches. It works, brilliantly.
The search queries are razor-sharp accurate. The choice of music is staggering. The interface is polished and intuitive, a pleasure to look at and use. You can drag and drop songs into the playlist queues, search while listening to music, and a ton more things that even fully fledged desktop programs do not always offer.
Grooveshark is quite possibly the best online music repository. I'm genuinely impressed. This is a true keeper. 10/10. Now, off to listen to some proper music.
Cheers.