Stream Music, Create Playlists, and Save the Party for Free with Grooveshark

Here is the situation: You’re at a party – the girls want to dance and your buddy wants to fist pump like a champ – but no one has any music. You spot an iPod in the corner and take a look at the selection, but all you see are 90’s boy bands and a playlist that only exists in Guitar Hero. But now a spark of genius hits you… Since they have an iPod, they must have a computer!

You look around again and spot a laptop next to the speaker system. Perfect!  Now here is the conundrum: do you hit up Pandora and let it roll, or do you go to YouTube and start building a video playlist?

The answer is neither – you go to Grooveshark.com.

It’s Grooveshark, Baby

Grooveshark is an online music search engine and music streaming website. It has a large collection of user-uploaded libraries for all your fist pumping needs.  The Grooveshark interface is very similar to that of iTunes, and features a side bar for most of its options. It is very intuitive and simple to navigate.

In the image below, you can see a few of the options provided to you upon entering Grooveshark. The My Library, People, New Playlist, and Favorites options are for VIP users which I have yet to try out. But what makes this website my go-to for streaming needs is that you don’t actually need to be a member to build a playlist.

All you need to do is search for your songs…

… And hit the plus button and the song will be added to your stream list at the bottom of the interface.

Grooveshark also has a few more interesting features that I enjoy.  The first is a repeat option which comes in handy if you have a song that you just can’t get out of your head. The next is a shuffle option, which is nice when you want to mix things up a little. The third option is the one I found most interesting, a cross fade option. This is unique because I haven’t seen it with any other music streaming websites.  (Crossfading blends adjacent songs in a playlist together as one ends and the new song starts, making a seamless transition to the new song.)

The Radio button is similar to how Pandora works where it will find songs similar to the ones you are listening to and it has a like/dislike feature.  Users can click the happy face or a sad face to specify their opinion on the song.

Another great feature is the Popular playlist which contains the most popular songs of the day (or the month, if you so wish). Click either the Today or This Month tab and hit the Play All or Add All option and you’re good to go.

Conclusion

So now the situation has turned around, the ladies are happy, your buddy can fist pump to his heart’s content, and you’ve saved everyone from the 90’s boy bands. What does that make you? It makes you a HERO, and its all thanks to Grooveshark.