Unfortunately for us in Europe (and all the other non-US) based people, services like Pandora aren't available.
So is there a good alternative to Pandora, where you can listen to streaming music?
Preferably free and not restricted to certain countries. Spotify for instance would be awesome, but it is only available in a couple of countries. Last.fm isn't free and YouTube has to take the music from certain videos or doesn't even show them.
Have you tried Grooveshark ? although you have to have a browser window open, it's still pretty good
UPDATE: Looks like the service is closed. Too bad.
I kind of like The 61. It's a website targeted at people who want to discover new music. I found some pretty cool stuff there, but there's also lots of crappy songs.
From what I know, it works without geographical limitations. I listen to it in Czech Republic without a problem.
I'd like to second the Grooveshark recommendation, though I either don't have enough points to comment on the original reply (or just don't know how).
In any case, a key advantage to Grooveshark over Pandora is that you can play any song you want at any time, and can even replay it. Sometimes I get a song stuck in my head and I just want to hear it right now, Grooveshark let's me do that. On Pandora, I can type in the songs name and just hope I hear it sometime in the first 10-15 songs.
Grooveshark also has a mobile client for Android and iPhone, I'm an Android user myself and have found it works well on that platform.
Grooveshark doesn't have quite the same recommendation engine as Pandora/Last.fm. I find myself using it more as a personal on-line library of favorite songs or play lists I build myself and want to hear vs. a radio station interface that picks songs for me.
In the wake of Lala.com's demise, I was in a similar situation. Currently evaluating Rdio as a potential replacement. The selection isn't exceptional, but the web streaming works great, as does the iPhone app.
I like slacker radio. Pretty sure you can use it anywhere, I'm in Canada and it works for me!
www.spotify.com ?
I like last.fm. They have a neat tool that well search through your music on your computer and create radio stations based on it.
Mixest.com is in beta but looking good. Very simple, good selection.
It's not an equivalent to Pandora, which I too miss since it was limited to the US, but I'd recommend NPR's First Listen. They allow you to listen to albums that have not yet been released. Each album is available for a few weeks so only a few albums are available at any given time. However, they have a great taste, and it's well worth watching their list.
I like Jango. not sure if it's available in the UK, but it is in Canada.
I love Grooveshark but I've been using various other sites as well depending on how I feel, most have been recommended already:
On thesixtyone, new artists make music and listeners decide what's good. We're nurturing a growing ecosystem where talented folks can sell songs and merchandise directly to their fans.
Our mission is to empower artists, promote widespread creation and consumption of art, and add value to the artistic community.
I'd also like to recommend MeeMix - kind of like Grooveshark in that it recommends music to you but also have a feature from sixty one where you can tell the radio how adventurous you are about your music. Pretty cool I think.
If you don't need to have access to all of popular music, try Uvumi.
Future Perfect Radio is a nice service featuring indie music : Future Perfect Radio
Another Vote for Groove Shark. It is great for your own collection as well as listening to others. If you want to upload one of your own and it is already in the system it doesn't actually upload your song again, it just adds it to your library. The RADIO function works like Pandora but doesn't seem to be as good at finding "Good" Songs. Making playlists and adding songs to Favorites is easy as pie and works great. Combine it with Groove Shark Mobile and it can't be beat.
Free online music player based on HTML5 - http://prostopleer.com/?lang=en (currently available in Russian language)
I listen to a stream in Pandora, and add the Good songs to my Grooveshark playlist. Then when I have enough good stuff, I put my grooveshark playlist on shuffle/repeat and kick back and enjoy!
Try Musicovery.com
http://napster.com is an on-demand streaming service available in Germany, the UK, and Japan (in addition to the U.S.). They have a 7-day trial period.
I definitely recommend we7 if you are in the UK or Ireland (you'll get 30 sec previews elsewhere).
For those recommending Grooveshark, be aware that there are some doubts over its legality, in that it doesn't pay the rightsholders of the songs it has - it's been sued by EMI and now Universal: "Grooveshark sued by another record company".
From their about page:
Slacker was founded to deliver personalized radio to everyone. We combine the knowledge of the nation's leading music experts from every genre and your own personal tastes to create perfect radio stations for each and every listener.
We love music, and you'll hear the difference that it makes in every Slacker station. Slacker Radio is much more than a playlist creating computer that chooses songs that are similar to each other. Our expert DJs hand-pick songs based on their extensive knowledge combined with your personal preferences. Our music library is larger than our leading competitor's by millions of songs, so you'll hear all of your favorites and a ton of new music that we know you'll love!
Try 8Tracks. It has user curated playlists, with (almost) unlimited listening and mobile apps for both iOS and Android in addition to a HTML5 mobile site.
