Anyone that has used Spotify will know that it is an incredible application – a liberation of music if you will. It has been launched barely six months but already there seems to be a worthy competitior. It’s called Grooveshark.
There are a number of differences between Spotify and Grooveshark, the first and most obvious being that Grooveshark is browser based rather than a downloadable client.
The Grooveshark interface is a little confusing to begin with but after a little use you realise it has a fairly intuitive tabbed-timeline based navigation. This means moving back is very easy – like a breadcrumb on a website.
It is also impressive when it comes to the bit that matters – the music. A brief search for some more ‘alternative’ types of music reaps plenty of rewards. I searched Bat for Lashes, Zero 7, Nightmares on Wax, Air, Oasis and Kings of Leon and it returned the majority of their albums plus loads of bonus tracks. In some cases the results may have been more plentiful than Spotify. I also did a cheeky search for My Piano by Hot Chip which is annoyingly missing from Spotify and it is there!
To summarise I’d say Grooveshark is more than a match for Spotify. Whether the team have the financial clout and can match Spotify in the long run is yet to be seen but I’d certainly consider it if you are after free music. Personally I won’t be switching my alliances because I am used to the Spotify interface and I prefer the desktop client rather than making sure I keep a browser tab open but I certainly give Grooveshark my seal of approval.
It’s all Indie, it’s 100 minutes of music (or thereabouts) and it’s a devilshly clever use of the famous American car race. ‘Nuff said. Enjoy.
Indie 100
1. Dreaming Of You – The Coral
2. The Prayer – Bloc Party
3. Golden Touch – Razorlight
4. When You Were Young – The Killers
5. The Fallen – Franz Ferdinand
6. I Wanna Be Adored – The Stone Roses
7. A-Punk – Vampire Weekend
8. Living For The Weekend – Hard Fi
9. Wolf Like Me – TV On The Radio
10. Waving Flags – British Sea Power
11. Somewhere Else – Razorlight
12. Jager Yoga – CSS
13. Oh My God – Kaiser Chiefs
14. You! Me! Dancing! – Los Campesinos
15. Decent Days And Nights – The Futureheads
16. Mardy Bum – Arctic Monkeys
17. Valerie – The Zutons
18. Halfway Home – TV On The Radio
19. Don’t Look Back Into The Sun – The Libertines
20. The Angry Mob – Kaiser Chiefs
21. Waterfall – The Stone Roses
22. Girl – Beck
23. All These Things That I’ve Done – The Killers
24. When The Sun Goes Down – Arctic Monkeys
25. Slow Hands – Interpol
26. Pressure Point – The Zutons
I’ve listened to quite a bit of good new music this year so far so here comes a small playlist of ’09s best.
I’ll update it from time-to-time with new tunes but there’s a real mix of established artists and complete newbies…some of which could hit it big (see MGMT c.2008).
Best of 2009 (so far)
1. Drop The Tough – Groove Armada
2. To Lose My Life – White Lies
3. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ – Bob Dylan
4. The Girl And The Robot – Royksopp
5. Pictures – Sneaky Sound System
6. Stuck On Repeat – Little Boots
7. Poker Face – Lady Gaga
8. Daniel – Bat For Lashes
9. Alone – Dan Black
10. Don’t Upset The Rhythm – Noisettes
11. New In Town – Little Boots
12. True Romance – Golden Silvers
I’ve been wanting to go for a couple years but I’ve finally got my act together and bought myself (and my lovely girlfriend) a ticket for the Lovebox Weekender this year. Lovebox is a festival hosted by the legends that are Groove Armada and held in Victoria Park, London in the middle of July every summer.
There are a number of acts I’m looking forward to seeing…obviously GA are top of the bill but I’ve really been getting into Ladyhawke this year and NERD are a class act. I’m keeping an open mind on Duran Duran!
Hopefully the weather stays good and it’ll be an awesome weekend. I imagine I’ll post up a Lovebox Playlist with all the best acts and songs that we saw during the weekend so watch this space.
In the mean time, check out the Lovebox website and get your ticket!
