Grooveshark vs. Pandora.

Many online music services have been competing over the years to allure users into listening to music on the internet for free, while also offering an ad-free and more feature rich version for a small fee. Several options, including Pandora, advertise being "internet radio", where the user defines the genre played based on a sample song.

Grooveshark (try it here) is a totally different animal with a whole new degree of selection and endless possibilities. Unlike Pandora, in Grooveshark one can search for particular artists and songs, listen to it on repeat, and skip songs as often as he/she would like. Additionally, this music service has sought to implement a solid social networking aspect which, for the most part, has succeeded in full. People who are friends can create and share playlists, and find new music in ways that was not possible before. Compared to other services, this is a huge leap forward.

Pandora begins to seem a bit less attractive in light of this competition. One finds him or herself frustrated with the limitations and constraints of Pandora, while other services are able to do what Pandora says is simply not possible. But, there are advantages to Pandora. For one, it is much less involved. Simply enter a song/artist and it creates an endless playlist of songs similar to the original. This is great for driving and playing on a mobile device. Mobile listening is another major benefit of Pandora. The application and data access from Pandora's end is free and very usable (given the varying data charges on your smartphone's plan). With Grooveshark, only subscribers ($3/Month) can use the mobile application, and the application itself (we used blackberry), is clunky and very difficult to navigate.

When it comes down to it, there is no easy way to decide which service is superior. Both online music services provide different features for a different set of needs. Pandora is great to turn on during a casual game of cards, while driving, or just when music is the last thing on your mind. Grooveshark, on the other hand, is for the more involved user looking to control every song that they listen to in a given amount of time. Both of these tools are great free alternatives to spending significant amounts of money on music, and may prove to not only be the primary way of listening to music in the future, but also expand into a highly-competitive, consumer-friendly market. Additionally, we feel that since Grooveshark is free, and that it allows such a wide selection with so few limitations, it is likely to reduce the amount of piracy.