Grooveshark is a mix between Pandora and iTunes. Membership is free (unless you purchase an upgrade), and you search songs, artists, or genres for songs that meet your fancy and add them to a file called "My Music". From there, you can sort your tunes into Collections or simply create a newly-ordered, unique playlist every time that you log on. One of my favorite features on Grooveshark is that you can select a collection or a group of songs to listen to and change the order of the songs with just one simple click. I am unashamed to admit that I feel a bit like a DJ when using this website.
This music database has dozens of snazzy features that make music even more interesting. You can click a button entitled "Play my Station" and Grooveshark will create a music station just for you. By going to the website's 'homepage'--which is really a homepage the site personalizes to be best-fitted for you--you can access groupings of songs that are recommended for you; unlike Pandora, you won't have to spend even an instant wasting time listening to some terrible variation of your favorite artist. For example: recently, I've been listening to a rather large quantity of latino pop and rap; Grooveshark soon made me a bizarre recommendation: Portuguese music! I tried it out, in the typical adventurous Grooveshark spirit, and discovered that Portuguese music is actually rather quality. Those songs were instantly added to My Music.
On the search-bar side of things, the crazy-specific song choices on Grooveshark would transport any music nerd straight to musical heaven. For example, by typing in a song as mainstream as, for example, Fireflies, dozens of results will come up. You can choose however many versions of the song you would like to add to your music collection; they offer radio edit versions, British radio versions, several album versions, single versions, remixes up the wazoo, etc.
Another unique feature of Grooveshark is the community aspect of the site. I do not know what the website's mission statement is, but if I were to guess a part of it, I would say that a major goal of the site is to provide music-lovers with music they love--both old and new--and to help them expand their tastes and knowledge by interacting with a wider community of similar-minded people. You can "Follow" artists, random people, or friends via the website to learn about other people's music tastes, and chat about your favorite artists and songs. Or you could simply choose a Station that plays the music of specific artist 100% of the time.
Each Grooveshark user has a profile, and I must make you aware of one very wonderful thing. Unlike the dull deafult profile picture of Facebook, the Grooveshark default profile picture is a monotone fish. It's so adorable that I doubt I'll ever replace it.
There are only two downsides to Grooveshark that I've discovered so far.
1). Since it is a website, it is unavoidable that, when there is no internet, there is no Grooveshark :(
2). Grooveshark occasionally has trouble buffering songs, and it is common to be in the midst of jamming out to your favorite tune when it goes crackly, pauses, and then continues, expecting you to forgive the incident.
If you'd like to try Grooveshark out, here's the link: GROOVESHARK! If you would like to follow me on this website, let me know, though following is by no means at all necessary to enjoy the site.
Happy listening!
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