If one is not much of a download fanatic but loves music just the same, well, then streaming music sites may be the choice for you. You can get the latest sounds for you to play again at the time of your choice and you get to share your choices with your friends online (yes, it’s a social network and you only get to hear the music but not download it). Getting your hands on legal downloads can be a pain nowadays, even with the sudden demise of DRM for most of the major record labels.
Pandora, one of the free download sites for music and videos has restricted access to users in North America only and blocks those from outside of their license area using IP address detection. They do let you specify your email address so you do get notified when they do get permission to share content in your country (which can be close to never). We7, another free download site gets you free music with advertising which is advantageous to all concerned (please see previous post about We7). From the artist, record company, the Sharing company (We7) and the end-user. Who all get what they want with a few ads to bug you from time to time (It’s those embedded ad’s that make them free and legal). Other than those ads, paid downloads and P2P sites, they are all you have in terms of getting your hands on the hottest tracks from the best to the not so famous types(budding independent types) of artists. Then, there’s streaming music or radio straight from the internet (that is if you don’t have digital radio support yet). Imeem, for some of the best music on and friends anywhere on earth, and music too.