Websites devoted to music are pretty common nowadays, especially since many of them more or less do the same thing. But there are some that offer unique features that give you plenty of tunes at no cost with no hassle. The added benefit is that you can listen to your favourite music at work without having to use an iPod or save the music files on a work computer (which many workplaces don't allow to begin with). 

There are popular music streaming sites like, Last.FM, Pandora and Slacker, but these are either unavailable in Canada or may require subscription fees to unlock the best features.

These five music-focused sites offer plenty of free music, including one that allows you to access the tunes you have in your own collection.



Songza is essentially a free Internet jukebox that scours the Web for songs you want to listen to and streams them for you. When you search for a song in the search bar, all the songs that match show up in a list - which also includes the audio portion of clips from video sites like YouTube. This is a big reason why there are a lot of live versions of songs available on Songza. Signing up for an account is free and easy, and it allows you to create your own library of songs, which you can access from any computer with Internet access.

It's a good option for listening to music at work, since nothing is actually being downloaded and copied onto the hard drive of the computer. You can also share your playlist with other users and see what they've found. Plus, a Songza application you can add to your Facebook profile also helps spread the word about what musical gems you found.



If you like the idea of being able to listen to your own music collection from your iTunes library, then nuTsie is a great option to try out. The site's name is actually an anagram of iTunes, and its coolest function is the ability to migrate playlists from your computer's iTunes library for playback directly from your nuTsie account. You can add the songs manually, or download a small nuTsie application (Windows PC or Mac) to speed up the process automatically.

Since you have to start an account (quick and painless), you can log in and access your playlists from any computer with Internet access. You also get the choice of listening to playlists created by other users, and even mix them with songs on your own.

Grooveshark is very much an online jukebox like Songza is, except it has a slicker interface and has a little more of a social networking aspect to it. The basics are pretty simple. You can search for artists or song titles and then add what you want to a personalized favourites playlist that you basically build on your own. This way, no music is forced on you through set playlists determined by the site, like you see with other music streaming websites.

You need to sign up for a free account to utilize Grooveshark's features, but that's more a formality than anything else. Once logged in, you can suggest songs to friends or be informed of recommended songs through others or even the site itself.


This site stands out from the rest, largely because it's a huge network for music radio stations of all types, genres and languages around the world. If you're a fan of a certain genre or ethnic form of music, you will likely find something to your liking with Live365. The level of choice is quite extensive with dozens and dozens of genre-specific stations, as well as others specific to a theme (i.e. 80s, 90s, wedding, etc.) that ultimately come out to thousands of radio feeds. Some of these stations will also have commercials, since they might be Web streams of actual radio stations, but most are nothing but music.

And most broadcasters are just regular users who have created their own online stations, which is something that you could do yourself if you wanted to create a station that you could listen to at work. Don't be surprised if you start to see other users listening to your creation.


As its namesake suggests, Musicovery is very much a music discovery platform, on top of being an online jukebox. It uses an interesting method in which you choose what kind of mood you're in, where it then displays a web chart of songs that are similar in melody and tempo, even if the genres are completely different. So, while you can listen to streaming music for free, you also get the opportunity to find out about new songs that you may not have otherwise come across.

You can also go this route via a specific genre, though the list is a bit limited. You might find some of the choices it makes for you to be a bit strange, but the way this site works is still cool, and may end up opening your ears to songs you never knew about.