Are you looking for an alternative to Last.fm or Pandora? If so, read on.

As an avid listener of music I was completely blown away when I discovered Pandora and the Music Genome Project a few years ago. It was an amazingly intelligent music streaming system with a great music library, and it was 100% free to use. Unfortunately, the high fees that the major labels asked Pandora caused the music platform to shut their doors to the rest of the world, remaining open and free only to the United States. Being from Europe, I was left out and sad, although I understood their decision.

Like many people I went looking for an alternative to Pandora and ended up migrating to Last.fm. It wasn't great, it was (and still is), in comparison with Pandora, a dumb and deaf music streaming system that will mix up bands from different styles now and then and get really confused when two bands have the same name. On top of that, the site layout was horrible and there's this social networking side of Last.fm that I just hate. But hey! It was free. So I settled for it until recently.

Oh, and the audioscrobbler function is extremely overrated.

And that probably brings us to the reason why you're reading this page. Last.fm has decided in April 2009 that there are first grade and second grade users. The first grade users are from the United States, United Kingdom and Germany and will be able to keep using Last.fm for free. All others will have to pay for it. How's that for fairness? The reason behind this decision is the same one that affected Pandora a few years back - the licensing fees.

I'm sorry but I won't pay. I hate the recording industry as much as the next guy but I refuse to pay for internet radio as I never had to pay for regular radio. That's the proof that radios can be fully financed with advertising. So you (Pandora, Last.fm and other alternatives) will just have to find a better business model. My suggestion, develop a model that first and foremost respects the users.

On my search for an alternative to Last.fm I found the one that, in my opinion, is the best free online radio. In fact, after a careful comparison, I can honestly say it's even better than Pandora. The service is called Grooveshark, and from what I experienced they have as much music on their library as the others. Grooveshark is the best free music streaming service for several reasons, but the main one is that you actually get the chance to choose the songs you want to listen to. Let's say you wake up and you feel like listening to The Beatles' "Abbey Road"; all you have to do is search for it, and probably some other user has already created and shared a playlist containg the songs from that album. It really is that easy! But if you're feeling adventurous and want to explore new music, you can also ask Grooveshark to create the playlist automatically. Just give it the motto - the first song - and from there it will work on its own. If by any chance Grooveshark brings up a song you don't like, just let it know and that tune won't bother you again - and the opposite goes for songs you loved. And if you liked the songs Grooveshark chose for you, you can save the playlist.

Another cool feature is that there is a social networking side to it, but it's not as in your face as Last.fm's. And since Grooveshark's content is user-sourced, you can even upload mp3 of your own songs and see what the community thinks of them - all music uploaded by any user is made available for everyone.

Sound quality is top notch, the music downloads very fast and the stream never gets choppy. And have I mentioned the looks? The site layout is perfect, easy to navigate, sleek and very well organized. Grooveshark is supported by advertising but they are strategically placed and not at all intrusive. Another positive point to the Grooveshark team is that no matter what you do on the site the player will keep playing - you can go looking for other artists and songs, add to your playlist, manage your personal library and unlike Last.fm, it won't stop playing! :-)

I hope this review was helpful for those who are looking for a great free internet radio service. If you're a music lover looking for the best site for streaming music, you have to try Grooveshark. You will not regret it. Grooveshark is all about the music - everything else is just noise.